Earth’s Features!

Landforms

Bodies of water

Objective: Be able to identify and describe the earth’s features and the processesthat form and shape them.

WHY?? Possible reasons:1. It is required by the state of Texas.2. By understanding your environment and havingknowledge about what affects it and how it affects you, you become a more informed citizen, and in our countrywe all have a responsibility or at least an opportunityto vote on issues and have the freedom to start businessesin which this knowledge could well be beneficial.3. On a more personal and current note, this will be on a test!

What do you already know? What do you need to know?

Get your pen and paper ready. The next few slides are an effort to evaluate knowledge you may already have and also to introduce things you don’t already know.

You will be given a definition or description of a landformor body of water. Practice note-taking by bulleting theimportant information from the slide, and if you know the feature being described, label it!

The definition will be followed by a picture of the actual feature– some of you will figure out the feature from this slide. Try to add a quick sketch to your notes.

Small body of water.

Large body of water.

Another large body of water.

STRAITA narrow channel of water joining 2 larger bodies of water.

Atoll

lagoon

A Ring-like coral island & reef that nearly encloses a lagoon.

large piece of land

another large piece of land

Isthmus

Public Domain. Suggested Credit: NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team

A narrow strip of land connecting 2 larger masses of land.

Cataract

A step-like series of waterfalls.

Alluvial plain

A flat area resulting from repeated deposits of alluvial material by running water.

Long narrow island

mainland

barrier island

A long, relatively narrow island running parallel to the mainland.

Peninsula

A large piece of land surrounded by water on 3 sides.

Rift Valley

A lowland between ranges of mountains, hills, or other uplands often having a river or stream running along the bottom.

Delta1. The wide lower course of

a river where it flows into the sea. Estuaries experience tidal flows and their water is a changing mixture of fresh and salt.

Related term-

Estuary-

2. Mouth of a river-Place where a river flowsinto a larger body of water.

A triangular area of land deposited at the mouth of a river.

delta

Archipelago

A group or chain of Islands

Fjord

A long, narrow, deep inlet of the sea between steep slopes

Canyon

A ravine formed by a river in an area with little rainfall.

PlateauAn elevated, flat land higher than its surrounding land; a tableland

Headwaters Where a river begins…

TRIBUTARY

A stream that flows into a larger stream or other body of water.

Smaller river

Larger river

Escarpment

A steep slope or long cliff that separates 2 level areas of differing elevations.

Glacier

A huge mass of ice slowly flowing over a land mass.

Panama Canal

It’s a man made feature across whatkind of landform?????

A man-made waterway used for travel, shipping or irrigation

There are of course many other types of landforms and bodies of water…..To finish out our objective, your next jobis to apply knowledge of internaland external forces to their effect on the Earth’s features.For each landform we have just defined, identify and explain the internal and/orexternal process that formed it or continues to shape it. Identify a real worldexample for each landform AND body of water.

External Forces*weathering - chemical - physical*erosion

Internal Forces*plate tectonics -collide -move laterally -pull apart

A canyon is formed by weathering and erosion. Water breaks down the rock and carries it away.The Grand Canyon in the western U.S. is a “grand” example.

Let’s practice: How is a canyon formed? Name a real world example of a canyon.

One more, how is a plain formed or shaped?Name a real world example of a plain.