Have you ever wondered what an alluvial fan is or what fossils are? Maybe you’ve heard of a plateau? Today, we’re going to explore these and many other fascinating landforms. Let’s dive in!
Landforms are the natural features you see on the Earth’s surface. They can be big, like mountains and plains, or smaller, like hills and valleys. Some landforms, like alluvial fans, are not as well-known. An alluvial fan is a fan-shaped area made from clay and other sediments that form when a river slows down.
Landforms are shaped by nature over thousands or even millions of years. They are made from different materials, like the Earth’s crust, which is a rocky layer covering our planet. Dirt, which is a mix of broken rocks and pieces of dead plants and animals, also helps form landforms. Sometimes, you might find fossils, which are remains of ancient living things, in the dirt or deep in the Earth’s crust.
There are also sediments, tiny particles that settle on the Earth’s surface by wind, water, or ice. These sediments can form landforms like the alluvial fan we talked about. Another material that creates landforms is lava from volcanoes. When volcanoes erupt, they release melted rock that can form new land over time.
There are about ten main types of landforms on Earth: mountains, valleys, plains, plateaus, islands, lakes, oceans, coasts, deserts, and rivers. Let’s learn about each one!
Mountains are the tallest landforms. They look like upside-down ice cream cones with steep sides. The top of a mountain is called the peak. The Himalayas are the tallest mountain range, with Mount Everest being the highest peak at 29,030 feet tall. That’s as high as 48,000 people standing on each other’s shoulders!
Valleys are low areas between mountains. They are formed by rivers flowing down from the mountains. Death Valley in the United States is a famous valley. It’s the lowest, hottest, and driest place in North America and is surrounded by mountains.
Plains are flat areas on the Earth’s surface. Some, like the Great Plains in the United States, are in the middle of land masses, while others are near the ocean, called coastal plains.
Plateaus are similar to plains but are higher up with steep sides. They can be found between mountain ranges. Some plateaus, like the Seychelles Plateau, are even underwater!
An island is land surrounded by water. Islands can form from volcanic eruptions. Hawaii, made up of eight major islands, is an example. The active volcanoes there create new land each year!
Lakes are bodies of water surrounded by land. Most lakes have freshwater, but some, like the Great Salt Lake, have saltwater. Lakes can be small like a football field or as large as countries.
Oceans are the largest bodies of water, covering 71% of the Earth’s surface. There are five main oceans: Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic, and Southern. Oceans create waves that crash onto coasts.
Coasts are where the ocean meets the land. Beaches are found along coasts, and some coasts have cliffs. Lighthouses used to guide ships away from rocky coasts.
Deserts are hot, dry places with little rain. They have lots of sand and few plants. Some deserts, like the Antarctic Desert, are covered in ice. Death Valley is a desert valley due to its dryness.
Rivers are long bodies of water that flow into lakes, oceans, or other rivers. The Nile River is the longest river, stretching over 4,100 miles through 11 countries.
Landforms make our world special and are always changing. Next time you’re outside, look around and think about the landforms you see and how they might have formed. Happy exploring!
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Types of Landforms
Do you know what an alluvial fan is? Or maybe you know what a fossil is? Or perhaps you have heard of a plateau? In this video, we are going to learn what they are and much more, so stay tuned!
Have you ever gone hiking in a canyon or skied down a snowy mountain? You may live in a valley without a hill for miles. Earth has all kinds of features like these called landforms.
So, what is a landform? A landform is a specific feature on the surface of the Earth, ranging from huge things like plains, plateaus, and mountains to smaller features like hills and valleys. There may be other types of landforms that you’ve never seen. For instance, have you heard of an alluvial fan? This is a fan-shaped mass of alluvium, a type of clay sediment that forms as the flow of a river slows down.
Like alluvial fans, other landforms are shaped by nature too and can take thousands or even millions of years to form. Landforms are made up of various materials. Some of these materials are common, like the Earth’s crust, a rocky covering around the planet, and dirt, which is a mixture of broken rocks and pieces of dead material from plants and animals. Fossils, which are the remains of things that once lived here on Earth, are less common than other materials. Fossils may be found in the dirt or even deeper in the crust below.
There are also sediments, which are all kinds of particles that settle on the Earth’s surface by wind, water, or ice—similar to the alluvium that makes the fan-shaped landform we discussed earlier.
Can you guess what the last material is? I’ll give you a hint: it ejects from giant openings in the Earth’s surface. If you said volcanoes, you’re right! Volcanoes erupt melted rocks that slowly create all kinds of landforms, just like sediment, dirt, fossils, and the Earth’s crust. These different materials make up the landforms on Earth. Some of them might be underwater, while others may sit way up on top of a mountain or deep in a valley below.
There are about ten different kinds of landforms on Earth: mountains, valleys, plains, plateaus, islands, lakes, oceans, coasts, deserts, and rivers.
Let’s start with mountains. Mountains are the highest landforms on Earth. They tend to be shaped like upside-down ice cream cones with steep sides and ridges. Each mountain has a tip at the very top that we call the peak. The Himalayas are the tallest mountain range in the world, with the highest peak being at the top of Mount Everest, which has an elevation of 29,030 feet. That’s as tall as 48,000 people standing on top of each other’s shoulders! Can you imagine hiking all the way to the peak?
Valleys, on the other hand, are low-lying areas that tend to sit between mountain ranges and other large landforms. Valleys are formed over time as rivers flow from the mountains above. The most well-known valley in the United States is Death Valley. This valley is the lowest, hottest, and driest area in all of North America. It’s found on the eastern end of California and is over 15 times bigger than New York City. The edges of this valley, like many others, are surrounded by mountains.
Plains are the flat areas on the Earth’s surface. Some plains, like the Great Plains, are situated in the middle of land masses, while others can be found near the ocean, which we call coastal plains. The Great Plains are in the United States, spanning across a massive expanse of land that makes up the entirety of Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and even parts of six other states.
Plateaus are similar to plains but are situated higher than the land around them. They have steep sides and cliffs and can often be found between mountain ranges. There are many famous plateaus around the world, like the Colorado Plateau and the Anatolian Plateau. Some plateaus are even underwater, like the Seychelles Plateau or the Java Plateau.
An island is a piece of land surrounded by water. Remember the melted rock that volcanoes erupt? That material, when erupted over a long period of time, often forms an island. Islands tend to be found near the coasts of countries and can sometimes be entire countries or continents themselves. For instance, the continent of Australia is an island. Hawaii is one of the 50 United States and is made up of eight major islands. Hawaii will eventually have more islands because of the active volcano in the waters below. Scientists say that Hawaii’s new landform grows almost three inches per year, about the same rate as your fingernails!
Lakes are bodies of water surrounded by land, almost like the opposite of an island. Lakes come in all kinds of shapes and sizes and tend to be filled with freshwater, meaning they don’t have any salt from the ocean. However, there are some rare lakes, like the Great Salt Lake, that are filled with saltwater. There are millions of lakes throughout the world, some like Banshee Lake are the size of a football field, while others, like the Caspian Sea, are as big as countries.
Oceans are the largest bodies of water in the world. About 71 percent of the Earth’s surface is covered in water, and the oceans hold over 96 percent of all that water. The world has five main oceans: the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic, and Southern Oceans. These oceans create big waves that land at the coast of each of the seven continents. Some landforms, like mountains and volcanoes, can be found at the bottom of the ocean.
Have you ever been to the beach? If so, then you’ve been to a coast. Coasts are where the ocean touches the land. Beaches are found along the coasts of land masses, whether they’re on an island like Hawaii or on the coast of California. Coasts can also have cliffs at their edges. Before we had advanced navigational tools, people would point giant lights into the water from lighthouses to ensure boats weren’t crashing into the rocky cliffs on the shores.
Deserts can be dangerous too. Deserts are hot, dry places that get very little rain. They’re huge landforms with lots of sand and very few plants due to the lack of water. Deserts can often have dunes, which are hills made up of sand. Unlike the daytime, nights in the desert can be extremely cold, and some deserts are even covered in ice, like the Antarctic Desert.
Do you remember the valley we talked about earlier called Death Valley? Death Valley is considered to be a desert valley due to its extreme lack of rainfall. Other deserts, like the Sahara Desert or the Arabian Desert, are vast expanses of sand in some of the hottest places on Earth.
Rivers are long bodies of water that flow through land and into other bodies of water, like lakes and oceans, and even other rivers. The Nile River is the longest river in the world, stretching for over 4,100 miles and flowing through 11 different countries.
Wow! That covers all of the major landforms on Earth. Each of these landforms is what makes the world a special place. Some take thousands or even millions of years to form, and like Hawaii, the Sahara Desert, or even the Great Salt Lake, they’re constantly changing. Rivers may get wider while mountains crumble and get smaller. Hurricanes and tsunamis might wear coastlines away until there’s something else entirely.
Next time you’re in a beautiful place, try to think of what landforms are all around you and imagine how they all began. Hope you had fun learning with us! Visit us at learnbrite.org for thousands of free resources and turnkey solutions for teachers and homeschoolers.
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