Earth’s surface consists many different landforms. The shape of an area of land is also known as its topography. The topography of an area of land could be flat, sloping, hilly, or mountainous. Elevation, relief, and landforms determine an area’s topography. Elevation is the height above sea level. Relief is the difference in elevation between the highest and lowest parts off an area. A landform is a feature of topography formed by the process that shape Earth’s surface. All landforms have elevation and relief. A landform region is a large area of land where the topography is similar. There are 5 different types of landform regions in the U.S.; coastal plains, interior plains or lowlands, mountains, plateaus or highlands, and plains or mountains. The 3 main types of landforms are plains, mountains, and plateaus. A landform made up of flat or gently rolling land with low relief is called a plain. A coastal plain is a plain that lies along a seacoast and it has both low elevation and low relief. A plain that lies away from the coast is called an interior plain. An interior plain had low relief, but the elevation can vary. A landform with high elevation and high relief is called a mountain. Mountains are usually part of a mountain range, or a group of mountains that are closely related in shape, age, and structure. Mountain ranges make up mountain systems, and mountain systems make up a mountain belt. A plateau is a landform with high elevation and a more or less level surface. Scientist divide Earth into four spheres: the lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and the biosphere. The lithosphere is Earth’s solid, rocky outer layer. It contains continents and smaller land masses like islands. The atmosphere is the outermost sphere and...
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...ver often develops meanders, or a looplike bend in the course of a river, where it flows through easily eroded rock or sediment. Sometimes, meandering rivers form a feature called an oxbow lake, a meander that has been cut off from the river. Deposition creates landforms such as alluvial fans and deltas. An alluvial fan is a wide, sloping deposit of sediment formed where a stream leaves a mountain range. Sediment deposited where a river flows into an ocean or lake builds up a landform called a delta. Groundwater is the term geologist’s use for the underground water. A deposit that hangs like an icicle from the roof of a cave is called a stalactite. Slow dripping builds up a cone shaped stalagmite from the ice floor. Karst topography is a type of landscape in rainy regions where there is limestone near the surface, characterized by caverns, sinkholes, and valleys.
water is kept in by a rock ridge on the floor of the corrie called a
(“Facts about mountains for kids”) This is not a solid definition of mountains, but it is a general statement. Mountains typically have steep, sloping sides and sharp peaks. (“Facts about mountains for kids”) With these sloping sides come different levels to a mountain. The lowest level are the broadleaf forests then the middle slopes that are colder and have conifer trees. The next level of tree growth is called the timberline, then there are alpine plants, and finally at the very top there is nothing but snow covered rocks. (Simon, Seymour. pg.23 ) With every different level, there comes different plant and wildlife. The elevation also determines the human population, because the higher up the mountain you go the less oxygen; therefore, you will probably feel dizzy and short of breath. (Simon, Seymour pg. 25) Humans can climb mountains such as Everest, but few to none live there full time because of the reduction of oxygen. Mountains influence environments and are important to
As can be seen from the photo( Image 1), looking downstream, there were steep sections of bank where it appeared the erosive forces of the river when high have cause part of the bank to fall away leaving steep about 1m high drops on the bank with exposed rocky soil visible. The phenomenon also illustrate that it is an alluvial landforms, which will find erosional feature from fluvial
The world is ever changing and has been that way even before humans dominated Earth. However, what we are interested in for this topic is in the last few decades where globalization has had an impact in the early 21st century, making the world "flat". The phrase that the world has become flat is a metaphor for viewing the world level in terms of commerce and competition, meaning a level playing field where everyone has an equal opportunity. However, opinions are divided on how much globalization has actually impacted the world as a whole. Critics argue that Friedman’s term "flat" is grossly exaggerated as his view is from an American perspective. This paper investigates major arguments for both sides.
Soon after the sea reached longer distance westward and the sandy tidal deposits were converted to deep water deposits. Mancos Shale is the name given to represent these deposits, which are comprised of organic material and small particulates. Another interesting fact to note is that this type of sediment consists of fossils. These remains can include prehistoric shell fish, shark teeth, and many other types of organisms. The hills seen at the foundation of the mesa in the Montezuma Valley are comprised of gray
Concretions form in many different ways. The box shape of some ironstone concretions most often depend on the way a sandstone or shale bed breaks up due to the action of weathering into regular blocks of various sizes. The way in which this separation takes place along natural planes of weakness in a rock such as a horizontal bedding surface and vertical joints. Before this process of separation, as well as during the separation ground water soaks into the rock and circulates through the planes of weakness making the rock more porous.
Mudslides usually occur in hilly areas, for an example, when there was a mudslide in Bangladesh few months back, it occurred at Chittagong. Mudslides occur when a portion of a hill side becomes too weak to hold up its own weight. This is generally caused by an intense amount of rain fall. With all of the new water introduced into the slope the content of liquid makes it so heavy that gravity pulls it downward. Although water plays a major factor in creating the mud that flows in a mudslide the real reason that the land begins to slide is gravity. What happens is mudslides redistribute soil and sediments in a process that can be in abrupt collapses or in slow gradual slides.
The six concepts of geography are location, region, spatial pattern, spatial interaction, human/ environmental interaction, and culture. The location is everything; it is the starting point in geography. The region is the area of the land with consistent recognizable features, it has variations in its physical features. There are mountains, hills, valleys, plains, plateaus, oceans, lakes, deserts and wilderness, variations occur in its social and cultural features too. The spatial pattern is when a pattern is found in places that are far apart. Spatial interaction is when geographers believe one event can lead to a change in another location that is far away. Managing change is a key aspect of geography, geographers learn from past changes and predict and future ones. Human/ environmental interaction is the impact humans have on the environment. Interaction is closely linked to change. Again, in both physical and human aspects of the subject, geographers want to find out how things are linked together and how one aspect affects another. Lastly culture has different impacts on the environment, natural resources, concern issues of how people think about the world and how they communicate that thinking to
"On a recent afternoon, Scott McKenzie watched torrential rains and a murky tide swallow the street outside his dog-grooming salon. Within minutes, much of this stretch of chic South Beach was flooded ankle-deep in a fetid mix of rain and sea.
If the gradient is steep (like the example on the right) then this can indicate that the amount of rainfall becoming overland flow is very high, the result of this is that all the water reaches the river very quickly and all in a short period of time, this gives the immediate steep ascending limb on the hydrograph. Reasons for large amounts of rainfall becoming overland flow can be little vegetation and maybe impermeable rock below the surface. Being impermeable rock, the water cannot infiltrate through this and become ground water, instead it flows over the ground to the river. Urban development and agricultural practices contribute to overland flow.
Caves are natural, underground cavities formed by chemical dissolution of the bedrock or other geological processes. Based on the geological process responsible for their formation, caves can be divided into karstic and pseudokarstic (sensu Klimchouk 2004). Karstic caves derived from dissolution of the bedrock, whereas pseudokarstic are formed by other processes such as erosion by water and tectonic forces (sensu Klimchouk 2004). Although caves can be formed through different geological processes in different types of parent rock, the majority of natural caves worldwide are formed by dissolution of the bedrock (Klimchouk 2004); caves derived from this process are also known as solutional or karstic caves.
There are many different glacial landforms created by glacial erosion, one of these landforms is U-shaped valleys or glacial troughs. This glacial landform has many distinct characteristics. One of these characteristics is that it has very steep valley sides caused by the glacier as it moves down the valley eroding the sides of the valley by the processes of abrasion and plucking. Abrasion is when the boulders and moraine carried by the glacier rubs and erodes the valley side as it physically moves down the valley. Plucking happens when the water in the glacier freezes inside of the cracks in the individual rocks on the valley side then the water freezes and as the glacier moves the rock is plucked or torn from the valley side producing the steep side to the valley.
A mountain is the most basic result of two plates colliding. A mountain is formed when two continental plates collide, the plates crunch and fold the rock at the boundary, lifting it up and forming mountains and mountain ranges. According to the science textbook on page 206 lines 19-22 the text states “Two plates carrying continental crust can also collide. Then, neither piece of crust is dense enough to sink far into the mantle. Instead, the collision squeezes the crust into high mountain ranges.” The second possible landform that is caused by a convergent boundary is a deep ocean trench. A deep ocean trench is an underwater subduction zone involving two oceanic plates, or a continental and oceanic plate. A subduction zone is where two plates collide and the older, denser, and colder tectonic plate goes under (or subducts to) the newer, less dense, warmer tectonic plate. The plate which had more time to cool subducts under the hotter plate because in a colder substance the molecules are closer together which makes the plates substance more dense which causes the plate to sink. Whereas in a warmer substance, the molecules that make up the object are farther apart and are
Earth system refers to the earths interacting physical, biological, and chemical processes. The system consists of land, oceans, atmosphere and poles. The earth system has four spheres, including the geosphere, the hydrosphere, the atmosphere, and the biosphere. The geosphere refers to the solid parts of the earth system, including earth’s rocky crust, mantle, and the metallic core. Within the geosphere is the lithosphere, which only refers to the uppermost layers of solid earth. The uppermost layers of solid earth are the oceanic and continental crust rocks. Just below the crust is the mantle, which is composed mostly of magnesium and iron silicate minerals. The mantle accounts for about 2/3 of the
This process takes place with carbon dioxide, it reacts with certain types of rocks forming a solution that can easily be carried by water. Then there’s lichens and acid rain. Lichens are a combination of fungi and algae and grow on rocks and produce acids that break down the minerals within the rocks. Leaching is the process of removing dissolved minerals as they are carried to lower layers in the soil. The chemical weathering processes need water and occur more rapidly at higher temperatures. So warm, damp climates are the best places where chemical weathering occurs. It would most likely occur most when it’s raining because chemical weathering needs water for the process/ processes to happen. Water also interacts with calcites in caves, causing them to dissolve. In addition to changing the shapes of rocks, chemical weathering from water changes the composition of water. Weathering over billions of years is a big