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Here we learn about 4 different kinds of land forms, mountains, plains, hills, and plateaus.

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The Earth is just a small part of the universe yet is home to majestic sights and wonders (e.g. the Grand Canyon) that no one ever has or ever will fully understand.

As of 2021, an estimated three to thirty million distinct species of animals live on Earth. In addition, an estimated world population of 7.9 billion people live among them.

But where on the Earth's surface do these living creatures make their home, hunt down their prey, or hide from human beings?

From what constitutes a coastal landform to volcanic landforms, here is a detailed look at the facts and statistics that make the world's diverse types of landforms that transform the Earth's crust, not only unique, but fascinating, mysterious, and fun.

Table of Contents

What is a Landform?

A landform is a natural or artificial surface feature of a planet's solid surface that creates its terrain. Landforms can develop from tectonic plate movement taking place under the Earth's surface, glacial erosion, erosion by water and wind, folding and faulting, and volcanic activity and lava flow. Landform development manifests after a prolonged period-even millions of years.

How Do Scientists Categorize Landforms?

Landforms fall into various categories, and thereby smaller homogenous divisions, based on their distinctive physical features such as their:

*Locale (the location of the landform)

* Altitude (the height of the landform)

* Pitch (the grade or slope of the landform)

* Topography (the shape of the landform)

* Stratification (the sedimentary rock or soil layer of the landform)

Although the above landform features develop naturally (i.e. lava, erosion, water, etc.), landforms can also develop from the influence of biological heterogeneous factors like algae or vegetation.

To figure out what type of landform an area of terrain might be, the above distinctive physical features of the surface need consideration.

Each type of landform falls into a different class of landforms, categorized by each one's specific physical attributes.

Classes of Landforms

Depending on their characteristics, landforms can fall into one of thirteen distinct classes including, but not limited to, the following:

Aeolian Landforms: produced by wind activity.

Cryogenic Landforms: produced by repeated freezing and thawing, especially water.

Fluvial Landforms: produced by the erosional activity of water from rivers.

Impact Landforms: produced by collisions between astronomical objects and the Earth's surface (such as when a meteor creates a crater in the ground).

Karst Landforms: produced by eroding and dissolving portions of soluble rock layers above or below the Earth's surface.

Tectonic Landforms: produced by any of the relief features caused by the subsidence of the Earth's surface or by ascending magmatic changes.

Weathering Landforms: produced by the breakdown of rock, soil, or minerals as a result of contact with a water body.

Read on to learn more about the four major types of landforms.

What are the Four Main Types of Landforms?

A landform can include canyons, deltas, deserts, a glacial landform, and islands. But the four major types of landforms include mountains, hills, plateaus, and plains.

Mountains

A mountain landform is a colossal, rocky highland with a pointed or rounded top and sloping steep sides and is the highest landform on earth. A series or chain of mountains close together is called a mountain range.

Formation of Mountain Landforms

Areas of the earth's land surface that rise a minimum of 1,000 feet (300 meters) or more above the land surrounding it classify as a mountain according to most geologists. Most mountains form when plates-or pieces of the Earth's crust-collide with each other during an event called plate tectonics.

The three primary types of mountains and how they form include mountains of accumulation (or mountains formed by volcanic eruptions such as from shield volcanoes or stratovolcanoes), folded mountains (or mountains formed by plate tectonics), and mountains of erosion (or mountains formed by inclement weather).

Mountain Landform Animals

Did you know that mountain goats are not goats, but antelopes? They can climb higher than people and on the steep slope of a mountain because of their distinctive cloven hooves with two padded toes that can easily spread wide to increase their balance and significantly improve their grip.

The higher one travels on a mountain, the scarcer the oxygen, colder the temperature, and starker the sun, thereby substantially changing animal habitats. Environmental conditions cannot support plant life past the mountain's tree line-or the point on a mountain where trees cease from growing. As a result, many animals make their home in lower altitudes; only a select and hardy few can live twelve months above the tree line.

Mountain landform animals include:

* Alpaca

* Beaver

* Bison

* Brown Bear

* Caribou

* Coyote

* Deer

* Nubien Ibex

* Jackal

* Snow Leopard

* Kiang

* Wolf

Mountain Landform Facts and Statistics

Not only do the Himalayas have thirty of the world's highest mountains, but they began forming when the process of plate tectonics occurred over fifty-five million years ago.

Here is a list of fun facts and statistics about mountain landforms:

* Even though it looks like a floating glacier in the clouds, Mount Everest is actually the highest mountain on earth at 29,035 feet (or 5.5 miles) above sea level.

* The planet, Mars, has ten of the tallest mountains in the solar system, including Olympus Mons which is 15.5 miles tall.

* Mountaineering became more popular post World War II due to the unique preparation and equipment the Europeans developed for their soldiers navigating the Alps during war.

* Before the technological age of today, geographers measured mountains through a process called triangulation, which consisted of measuring the mountain peak from various observation spots.

The mid-ocean ridge is the most expansive mountain chain on Earth and runs 40,390 miles-90% in the deep part of the ocean.

Examples of Mountain Landforms

Examples of mountain landforms around the world include, but are not limited to:

* Aspen Mountain-Rocky Mountain Range/Colorado: 10,705 ft.

* Mount Everest-Himalayan Mountain Range/Nepal/China: 29,029 ft.

* Mount Fuji-Fuji Volcanic Zone: 12,389 ft.

Hills

Hills have many similarities with mountains, but they are not as steep nor as tall as their elevation typically falls under 3,000 feet. However, like mountains, hills have a higher elevation than their surrounding land and have sloping, steep sides.

Formation of Hill Landforms

Hill landforms can develop in a number of diverse ways. One way is by a melting glacier, and their tendency to dig up ground as they shift. Another way is via water currents and the dried-up water, which creates hills. Finally, hills can also form from erosion and deposits, as well as the wind and rain.

Hill Landform Animals

Many animals that live on hill landforms also live on mountain landforms. However, some other animals include:

* Dhole

* Tapir

* Turkeys

* White-tailed Deer

* Variety of birds

Hill Landform Facts and Statistics

While a hill supplies an ideal place to get a pleasant view, sometimes the pleasant view can be found in the hills themselves. For example, Mount Rushmore makes its home in South Dakota's Black Hills, while there are hills in the Philippines called the Chocolate Hills that look like Hershey's kisses.

Examples of Hill Landforms

As hills are primarily categorized with an elevation no more than 3,000 feet, here is a list of three hills around the world and their elevations:

* Britton Hill-Florida, U.S./345 ft.

* Pen Hill-Somerset, England/1,001 ft.

* Cavanal Hill-Oklahoma, U.S./2,385 ft.

Plateaus

Plateaus are incredibly unique landforms in that they are high plains, (also known as tablelands) or areas of highland consisting of flat terrains significantly raised above the surrounding area. There are two types of plateaus depending on how they formed-volcanic plateaus and dissecting plateaus.

Formation of Plateau Landforms

A variety of different processes can influence the development of plateaus such as the flow of volcanic magma, discharge of lava, and erosion caused by water and glaciers.

Volcanic plateaus form through volcanic eruption and lava while dissecting plateaus form when the Earth's crust rises.

The raised, flat highlands of plateaus take millions of years to develop and can spread over hundreds or even thousands of kilometers.

Plateau Landform Animals

Animals found on plateau landforms are often indigenous to the terrain. Here is a brief list of animals found on plateau landforms:

* Himalayan Marmot

* Plateau Pika

* Siberian Roe Deer

* Tibetan Gazelle

* Tibetan Antelope

* Wild Yak

* Chinese Serow

* Himalayan Blue Sheep

* Chinese Mountain Cat

* Mountain Weasel

* Eurasian Badger

* Chinese Zokor

* Wild Boar

* Siberian Chipmunk

* Golden Snub-nosed Monkey

Plateau Landform Facts and Statistics

Did you know a plateau landform in South America inspired Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World (UK)? The harsh environment of Monte Roraima, a sandstone plateau that sits on the border of Brazil and Venezuela, is home to one-third of the mountain's indigenous plant species.

Read on and learn more about other interesting plateau landform facts and statistics.

* "Table Mountain" is South Africa's more famous landmark and most photographed attraction and has millions of visitors every year who reach its top by cable car.

* The highest African plateau, found in Ethiopia-the Ethiopian Highlands-forms the largest continuous area of its altitude on the continent, thereby giving it its nickname: "The Roof of Africa."

Examples of Plateau Landforms

"The Roof of the World," the "Colorado Plateau," and the "Polar Plateau" are just three of the world's most famous plateau landforms on the Earth's surface. Here is a brief summary of their location and approximate size.

* Tibetan Plateau ("The Roof of the World")-Southwestern China/area of 970,000 square miles.

* Colorado Plateau-Colorado, U.S./area of 130,000 square miles.

* Antarctic Plateau ("Polar Plateau")-Antarctica/area of 5.4 million square miles.

Plains

Plains simply consist of large areas of flat, sweeping landmass. Often covered in grass and low in elevation, plains are one of the Earth's four major landforms. This type of landform is the most suitable for civilization and agriculture purposes, such as farming, then plateaus, mountains, or hills.

Many different types of plain landforms exist including erosional plains, depositional plains, lacustrine plains, and abyssal plains. But before land can identify as a plain landform, it must show the following attributes:

* It must be flat, broad, or slightly rolling land

* It must have low elevation compared to the surrounding land on the Earth's surface

Formation of Plain Landforms

Plain landforms are postulated to have developed in a variety of ways. Sometimes they form from layers of sediment deposits in the area from hills and mountains by ice, water, wind, and erosion. Other times, plains develop when the lava from a volcano flows across the Earth's surface.

Plain Landform Animals

Thousands upon thousands of species of animals live in plain landforms around the world.

In North America, these types of animals include such creatures as the fox, pronghorn, bison, black-footed ferrets, antelope, and grassland birds.

In Africa, zebras, elephants, lions, and rhinos roam the plains.

In Antarctica, emperor penguins, seals, birds, and sea lions call the tundra "home."

Plain Landform Facts and Statistics

Plains exist on every continent and cover more than one-third of the world's landmass.

Continue reading to dive in and discover more facts and statistics about plain landforms.

* The Native American word for plains is "savannah."

* Plains surround the majority of the world's rivers and smaller bodies of water. A coastal plain lies next to the ocean.

* In North America, some plain landforms may also be called "grasslands," and are referred to as "prairies." These plains typically have frigid winters and hot summers.

* A tropical grassland plain is a "savannah," and is typically warm all year long.

* "Tundra" are plains in the arctic.

Examples of Plain Landforms

As every continent has plain landforms, here are examples from each of them:

* North America: The Great Plains (U.S./Canada)

* South America: Pampas of South America (Uruguay/Argentina/Brazil)

* Europe: The Po River Plains (North Italy)

* Asia: The Eurasian Steppe (Hungary to China)

* Australia: The Central Lowlands (Australia)

* Antarctica: The Antarctic Tundra (Antarctica)

* Africa: The Bushveld (Africa)

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The Earth is just a small part of the universe yet is home to majestic sights and wonders (e.g. the Grand Canyon) that no one ever has or ever will fully understand. As of 2021, an estimated three to thirty million distinct species of animals live on Earth.

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This will go deep in to detail to teach you about all kinds of landforms.

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Many different types of landforms make up Earth's topography. Several major categories of landform define that smaller portion of the planet not covered by water, including mountains, plains, plateaus and valleys. These can be formed by a variety of natural forces, including erosion from water and wind, plate movement, folding and faulting, and volcanic activity.

The Mountain Landform

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The most common type of mountains arise where the Earth's crust experienced folding or faulting, such as the Canadian Rockies and the Alps. Fault-block mountains, such as California's Sierra Nevada, are formed when Earth's crust cracked and was pushed upward. Volcanic mountains form when hot magma from deep in Earth's interior breaks through the crust and builds up on the surface, whether quietly or explosively. Volcanism can form islands, such as Hawaii, built on a series of broad basaltic shield volcanoes. Volcanoes on continents can also appear isolated and almost island-like given their prominence, a prime example being Washington State's Mount Rainier.

The Flats: Plains

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Most of the Earth's surface consists of low and high plains, defined by a mostly level profile that ranges from gently rolling to completely flat. Such landforms are common in areas of extensive sediment accumulation, as in the "floodplains" and deltas of large rivers and the Atlantic-Gulf Coastal Plain of the United States. While those examples are low-lying, higher-elevation plains such as the Great Plains of central North America - built by sediment washed out of the Rocky Mountains and accumulated in long-ago seaways - also exist. Keep in mind that plains describe mostly level topography, though people sometimes incorrectly use "plain" as a synonym for grassland ecosystems (prairies and steppes). You can easily have a forested plain.

High Expanses: Plateaus

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Plateaus can be thought of as elevated plains - that is, elevated flattish areas - bordered on at least one side by lower-lying land and often edged by fairly abrupt scarps. These terrain features may derive from very old mountains eroded down over time, while others form by block-faulting. Earth's largest plateau is the Tibetan Plateau of Central and East Asia. In arid climates, plateaus can be heavily sculpted by water and wind erosion into mesas, buttes and canyons with extensive bare rock, as in the Colorado Plateau of the American Southwest.

Valleys, Canyons and Caves

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The erosion of rivers and the moving ice bodies called glaciers help sculpt valleys, often in combination with faulting. Glaciers flowing down drainages tend to sculpt U-shaped valleys; such glacially carved troughs often come to support lakes, as in the Finger Lakes of New York State. Running water, by contrast, tends to carve out V-shaped valleys. Mountain valleys tend to have steep walls and narrow channels - such features may be called canyons or gorges - while valleys on plains tend to have shallow slopes and wider channels. Caves form in karsts, where limestone, dolomite, or gypsum rocks are slowly dissolved by groundwater. Others are formed by waves pounding cliffs on the coastlines, or where molten rock drains out the inside of a lava tube of a volcano.

The Landforms of Deserts

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The ecological landscapes known as deserts, defined by very arid conditions of low precipitation and high evaporation, include plentiful mountains, plains, plateaus and canyons that include distinctive sub-varieties of desert landforms. These include gravel plains, sand dunes and dry lakebeds. Many natural factors are responsible for the creation of deserts, particularly current and past climatic conditions. The Mojave Desert in California consists of 1.6 million acres of landscapes that changed over millions of years, including mountains, canyons, volcanic fields and dry lake basins. The region is within a great inland drainage basin where ancient lakes overflowed into adjacent valleys and eventually spilled into Death Valley. After the region dried up, it left dry lakebeds exposed to erosion by the wind.

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The major landform categories of the Earth's surface include such large-scale topographic features as mountains, plains, plateaus and valleys. Climate plays an important role in sculpting landforms, as evidenced by distinctive desert landscapes influenced by extremely arid conditions.

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Here we see what some land forms are like.

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BY THE END OF THE LESSON, STUDENT SHALL BE ABLE TO:

Understand the various typesof landforms.

Define major landforms such as mountains, plateaus, plains,deserts and rivers with prominent examples from across the world.

Identify and memorize theimportant features of all themajor landforms.

Recall and list the importanceof mountains, plateaus, plains and deserts.

LESSON CONDUCT

READ

The Earth is made up of land and water and has uneven surface that gives us major landforms like mountains, plateaus, plains, deserts and rivers. Let's read a little more about the landform of the Earth.

MOUNTAINS

A mountain is a landform which rises more than 9000mtrs above the sea level. They cover more than 20% of the total land area of the earth.

LEARN BY DOING

1. All you require is a pile of paper.

2. Put the papers on your table.

3. Push the papers from both sides by your hands.

4. The sheet will be folded and rise into a peak.

5. You have made a mountain!
In the same process our Himalayas and the Alps were formed! GOOD TO KNOW
Mauna Kea (Hawaii) in the Pacific Ocean is an undersea mountain. It is higher than Mount Everest being 10,205 metres high.

Importance of Mountains

Mountains are important as:

1. They act as barrier against winds

2. Rivers originate from mountains

3. Slopes have rich lands for pastures and forests

4. Rich source of minerals

READ

PLATEAUS

Plateaus - a table land that is high with a flat top. It has steep slopes. Many rivers flow through plateaus. Some plateaus are large like The Deccan Plateaus in India and the highest one is in Tibet. Other examples are Colorado in N. America and Bolivian plateau in S. America. The dry side of the plateaus is sheltered from the winds and does not get rains, climate is cold. Very deep valleys are seen on the surface, called the Canyons. The Grand Canyon of Colorado is such an example. Plateaus are important for the grass lands on which cattle and sheep are reared. They are rich in mineral deposits.

READ

PLAINS

Plains - low lying and flat lands are called plains, can be hilly sometimes. Rivers deposit sand and silt to form plains. Some of them are in the interior of the continent and some near the sea coast. They are thickly populated with large cities and towns. Roads and railways are easier to build in plains. Fertile soil is suitable for agriculture. Ancient civilization came up on the banks of rivers, on the plains.

READ

DESERTS

Deserts - the land areas which receive little rainfall having hot days and cold nights. Deserts are full of dust storms, and hills of sand called dunes. Most deserts are on the western side of continents such as Sahara Desert, Kalahari in Africa, Great Sandy Desert and Great Victoria Desert in Australia. The Thar Desert and Arabian Desert in Asia and Atacama Desert and Patagonian Desert in S. America

READ

RIVERS

Rivers - are the natural channels carrying water from rainfall or melted snow from mountains to plains, lakes and seas. The channels start streams and join to form a river. The place of origin of a river is called the mouth, it passes through 3 stages -

1. The upper or the young course where the river is in high speed and cut deeply in the mountain. Some features of upper course are - Canyons, waterfalls and rapids.

2. The middle or mature course is in the plains, where the speed is less and the river develops loops called meanders. River Ganga has a meandering course between Prayagraj and Varanasi

3. The lower or the old course is where river joins the sea. Here, the speed is slow, deposits silt and forms triangular sloped land called delta. Largest delta is formed by Ganga and Brahmaputra rivers before joining near Bay of Bengal

TYPES OF LANDFORMS

SUMMARY

TASK

Try and answer all the questions as given at the back of your chapter, in your rough notebook.

VIDEO

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BY THE END OF THE LESSON, STUDENT SHALL BE ABLE TO: Understand the various typesof landforms. Define major landforms such as mountains, plateaus, plains,deserts and rivers with prominent examples from across the world. Identify and memorize theimportant features of all themajor landforms. Recall and list the importanceof mountains, plateaus, plains and deserts.

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Here there are a lot of land forms to learn about. This will tell you what it is.

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Free Homework Help | Our education staff publish regular articles, tips and tutorials to help students with their homework

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Earth Sciences: Types of Landforms | Free Homework Help

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The surface of earth is a collaboration of the various physical features. These natural physical features on the earth’s surface are called landforms.

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Here we are going to learn about all different kinds of land forms and how some are made.

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A landform is a feature on Earth’s surface that is part of the terrain. Mountains, hills, plateaus, and plains are the four major types of landforms.