What

are Landforms?
• Landforms are the natural features of the
earth.
• Mountains, plateaus, plains and hills are all
examples of landforms.
 Changes Over Time

Weathering
• Landforms constantly develop and change as
the forces of weathering and erosion change
rocks and break them down. Weathering is the
force that causes rocks to fragment, crumble,
crack and break down either chemically or
physically.
 Weathering of Rocks
• Rocks weather in different ways and at
different rates depending on the mineral
composition and location of the rock. The
rocks break down into small rock fragments as
they are weathered. These fragments are
broken down further into particles that
comprise soil along with organic material.
 Ice Wedging
When water is frozen it expands, so when water
seeps into cracks in rocks then freezes, the
expanded ice can cause the rock to split and
crack. This process is known as ice wedging and
it can reduce a rock to rubble over time.
 Soil/Plant Wedging
• Soil can also collect inside of the cracks of
rocks. Plants can grow in this soil and
eventually the roots grow large enough to
cause pressure on the rocks, causing the crack
to expand. The rock can split apart from this
expansion.
 Chemical Weathering
• Minerals found in the rocks can change to
other minerals due to the reaction with water
or air. Reactions such as rusting or acid
formation can also cause the rock to break
down into smaller fragments.
 Changes Over Time

Erosion
• Erosion carries away the rock debris caused by
weathering. The eroded rocks and sediments
are deposited by forces such as volcanoes,
wind, water, ice and waves to various
depositional environments on Earth’s surface.
 Water Erosion
• A variety of landforms are carved by water.
Moving water erodes rocks and transports the
small pieces of rock.
• Groundwater or underground water can
dissolve limestone causing caverns or sinkholes.
• Ocean waves shape our coastline. The waves
also transport sand and rocks causing extensive
erosion.
 Wind Erosion
• Wind moving at high speeds can transport a
large amount of dust and sand.
• Erosion of this type shapes deserts by carrying
the sand and by sandblasting rock. If soil
doesn’t contain plants to hold its place, it can
be exposed to vast amounts of erosion.
• Loss of soil can cause loss of farmland.
 1930 Dust Bowl
• During the Dust Bowl in the 1930’s, over
cultivation of the farmland removed the native
grasses that held the soil in place.
• Drought and wind stripped the land of its
fertile soil.
 Forces that Build
• Plate tectonics is a major force that builds large
masses of land.
• Faults, volcanoes and mountains are formed as
rocks are moved across the surface of the
Earth and shape mountains.

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 Deposition
• There are smaller building forces that can occur
by transporting weathering agents such as water,
wind and ice.
• These are the same forces that erode the land.
• These weathering agents can carry sediment and
deposit it somewhere else through a process
called deposition.
• Deposition of sediment can form beaches,
deltas, sand dunes and change
• the shape of rivers and
• coastlines.
 People and the Land
• People have a direct affect on weathering, erosion
and deposition.
• People can speed up erosion by clearing the land for
farming, housing developments, building roads,
deforestation and strip mining.
• People change the course of rivers by channeling
them and building dams across them
• The shapes of mountains are changed by building
roads and highways.
• Coastlines are changing by building roads and houses
that may alter the natural changes of the coastline.
 Examples of Landforms:

Valleys
• Valleys are depressions on the surface of the
Earth that are borders by hills or mountains.
• The naturally formed troughs are made by
water and/or ice (glacier) erosion.
• As rivers and streams flow through valleys,
they carry sediments and other materials of
land.
• Fertile soil is found at the bottom or floor of
the valley. The valley floor slopes downstream.
 V-Shaped Valleys

Valleys formed by rivers have more v-shape.

 U-Shaped Valleys

U-shaped valleys are formed by glaciers.

 Plateaus
• Plateaus are formed in different ways:
– Some are formed as a result of lava flows covering
a large area and building up the surface.
– They can also formed by the forces of upward
folding, followed by the erosion of surrounding
land. These forces leave large areas of fairly level
highlands that are separated from land by steep
slopes.
• Plateaus can be surrounded by mountains or
can be higher than the land around them.
 Mountains
• Mountains are created by huge forces in the
Earth over a long period of time.
• They are formed by the movements of the
Earth’s plates (plate tectonics).
• The forces of heat and pressure underneath
the Earth’s crust cause movements in the
Earth’s plates.
• These movements are what most scientists
believe form most of the mountains.
 Plate Tectonics
• The lithosphere of the Earth is divided into
sections called plates.
• Through plate tectonics these plates move and
collide, separate, and slide past each other.
• When some plates collide, one moves under
the other and causes the eruption of
volcanoes.
• Other plates compress causing folding and
wrinkling of the crust. (Appalachian Mts.)
 Plains
• Plains are wide stretches of land that do not
have significant changes in elevation.
• Some plains (Great Plains) are found inland
while others found along the coast.
• Plains contain fertile soil so these areas are
often well populated.
• Roads, towns and cities are also easily built in
these areas.
• Coastal Plains are stretches of lowland along
the seacoast that slope towards the ocean.
 Lakes
• Lakes are bodies of water that are different
from marine environments.
• They are small, fairly closed systems, and have
less pronounced tides.
• When sediment flows into lakes, the coarser
sand and gravel are deposited in the shallow
areas of the lakes, especially during the
summer.
• The finer silt and clay are deposited in the
deeper areas of the lakes, especially during the
winter.
 Volcanoes
• Volcanoes create different types of rocks
because of the various mineral compositions
that compose magma.
• Depending on the amount of gas found in the
magma and the thickness of magma, the
volatility of volcanic eruptions and the
landforms that are made differ.
 Lava
• Lava in mountain building environments is the
most thickness and has higher gas content.
• The eruptions from these volcanoes are more
explosive and form an extrusive, solid volcanic
material called tephra.
• Rich fertile soil is formed from ash and is used
for growing crops.
• In the USA most volcanoes are found in Hawaii,
Washington and Oregon.
 Volcanic landforms
• As a results of volcanic activity, there are three
different types of landforms that are created.
1. Lava Plains and Lava Plateaus are volcanic
landforms that are created when a large volume of
fluid lava flows over a wide surface area.
The result is topography with
extremely
flat surfaces that aggrades with each
successive lava flow.
 Volcanic composite cones
• Composite cones are very distinctive in
appearance.
• They have layers of interbedded, blocky tephra
that is composed mainly of ash and cinder.
• The peaks can rise several thousands of meters
with narrow circular bases.
• Mount Rainer in Washington is an example of a
composite volcano.
 3. Calderas
• These are created by volcanoes that have
erupted then have later collapsed inward.
• Composite cone volcanoes are much more
likely to form calderas due to the tephra sheets
that they contain.
• Crater Lake in Oregon and Yellowstone Plateau
in Wyoming are calderas.
 Other Types of Landforms:

Alluvial Deposits
• Alluvial deposits are rock debris and sediments
such as silt and clay that are carried down by
mountain streams or rivers to the valley floor.
• Alluvium is soil or sediments deposited by a
river or other running water.
• Alluvium is typically made up of a variety of
materials: fine particles of silt or clay, larger
particles of sand and gravel.
 River Flows
• A river constantly picks up and drops sediment
throughout its length.
– Where the river flows quickly, more particles are
picked up than dropped.
– Where the river flows slowly, more particles are
dropped than picked up
• Areas where more particles are dropped are
called alluvial or flood plains, and the dropped
particles are called alluvium.
 Alluvium Fans
• Alluvium often contains valuable ores such as
gold and platinum as well as a wide variety of
gemstones.
• Such concentrations of valuable ores are
termed a placer deposit.
• Stream flows that occurs in humid climates are
distributed into fan shaped landforms called
alluvial fans.
 Alluvial Soils
• Alluvial soils are finely layered and deep.
• The alluvial sands found close to river banks
and on natural levees are sandier, but can be
more clayey or peaty when close to swampy
areas.
• Some alluvial deposits have rich top soil and
are very fertile allowing for the area to be a
crop-growing region.
 Colluvial Deposits
• Colluvial deposits are materials that are moved
down slope by gravity and/or erosion and
collect at the base of mountains or foothills
with little or no sorting. (Soils from colluvial
deposition are deep and hard, clay soils are
more common).
 Eolian Desert
• Eolian desert deposits are found in arid regions
around the world.
• Dry air masses create wind systems that
transport then deposit sediment.
• Silt particles, called loess, are carried by the
wind and collect around the fringes of the
deserts.
• Large areas of the desert environment that
have more than 125 square kilometres of
eolian sands are called sand seas or ergs.