Landforms

1. Landforms

2. Continent • Continents make up the 7 large landmasses on Earth • North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, Antarctica

3. Basic Landforms • Basin – a depression in the earth’s surface surrounded by higher land • Drainage Basin – area drained by a river • Tributary-a stream or river which flows into a main stem (or parent) river

4. Delta – area of land created by soil carried from a river and deposited at its mouth

5. Basic Landforms • Strait- narrow, navigable channel of water that connects two larger navigable bodies of water

6. Basic Landforms Cont’d • Divide – High area of land that separates river systems • Escarpment – steep cliff or slope between a higher and lower land surface Escarpment Example

7. Basic Landforms Cont’d • Plain - area of land, usually at low elevation and often covered with grasses • Plateau – area of flat or rolling land at high elevation

8. Basic Landforms Cont’d • Peninsula – a body of land surrounded on 3 sides by water • Isthmus – narrow stretch of land connecting two larger land areas

9. Basic Landforms Cont’d • Island – land area, smaller than a continent surrounded by water • Archipelago – a group or chain of islands

10. Basic Landforms Cont’d • Fjord – A long, narrow, deep inlet of the sea between steep slopes Aquifer - An underground layer of permeable rock, sediment (usually sand or gravel), or soil that yields water

12. Basic Landforms Cont’d • Ocean – One of the five major bodies of water that surround the continents • Pacific, Atlantic, Arctic, Indian and Southern • Bay – Part of a large body of water that extends into a shoreline

13. Basic Landforms Cont’d • Glacier – Large, thick body of slow moving ice • Volcano – Mountain or hill created as liquid rock and ash erupt from inside the earth