subject: Understanding The Various Types Of Landforms [print this page] Plateaus, hills, valleys, mountains, glaciers or plains are the natural features of earths surface and form the landforms on the Earth.
Continents
These are big masses on earth. There are no set criteria for recognizing a continent these but are normally identified by convention. There are seven regions that are normally known as the continents. These are Asia, North America, Europe, South America, Africa, Australia and Antarctica.
Valley
These landforms are a natural trough in surface of earth which slopes down to some stream, lake or even ocean which has originated by water, ice erosion or both. It is hollow surface of earth surrounded by mountains or hills. Mostly the soil at the bottom of valleys is very fertile and is most useful for farming. Bottom of the valley is known as floor. Generally these slope downstream. The portion along banks of river is known as flood plain. Sides of valleys are known as valley slopes.
Rate of widening and deepening of valley dictates form of the valley. Rivers and erosion cause V shaped valleys. The valleys that are not V-shaped had been occupied by glaciers earlier and are therefore U- shaped. Huge pieces of ice moving along carved these valleys with the help of huge boulders and debris as they passed. Generally valleys are U-shaped. Deep and narrow valleys are also known as canyons.
Mountains
Uplift in earths crust or disturbance, erosion and volcanism forms mountains. It is common belief that most of the mountains were formed by geological forces such as pressure and heat which brought changes beneath the crust of earth as well as movement in crust of earth. Mountains mostly occur in oceans than land. The peaks of some mountains that are coming out of water are actually islands. Few low mountains are created because of differential erosion. Erosion is caused by rain, wind and ice which change shape of mountains.
Plains
These are normally level pieces of land having very little variation in elevation. These are normally lower than surrounding land and can be found along inland or coast. Coastal plains rise from the sea level till they join higher landforms like plateaus or mountains. Inland forms can be located at high altitude.
The climate in plains controls the plant life. Normally thick forests at the plains survive on humid climate. Plains are mostly populated because soil is good for cultivation. You can easily build roads and railways to connect various towns and cities.
Glaciers
These landforms are large pieces of ice which flows very slowly on the land. These get formed in high mountains and at cold Polar Regions. In these areas, huge quantity of snow builds up to turn into ice because of low temperature. The thickness of most of the glaciers varies from ninety-one to three thousand meters. When during winter snow fall is more than the quantity that evaporates and melts during summer, glaciers are formed. This extra snow keeps getting collected in number of layers. As the weight keeps increasing, it makes snow crystals below surface compact and pellets are formed.
