WHAT ARE SOME OF EARTH’S LANDFORMS?

What Do You Already Know? What is the land around your home like? Is it wide and flat? Does it have rolling hills or steep mountains?

What Are Landforms? A natural land shape or feature is called a landform. When you describe the landforms around your town, you are describing the area’s topography. Topography is all the kinds of landforms in a certain area.

Mountains, Hills, and Plains Mountains are landforms that are much higher than the surrounding land. Hills are like mountains, but not as high. Plains are large, flat landforms.

Landforms From Ice A glacier is a large, thick sheet of ice. As they move, glaciers change the land around and beneath them.

Moraines and Glacial Grooves Moraines are long, low hills formed by materials carried by a glacier. Glacial Grooves are formed when a glacier scrapes and scratches the rock beneath it.

Landforms of Sand A sand dune is a sand hill that is made and shaped by wind. Barrier islands are long, narrow piles of sand that help protect the mainland from erosion.

Critical Thinking What do you think might happen to a coastline if there were no barrier islands? How are sand dunes and moraines alike and how are they different?

Landforms from Water A mesa is a tall, flat-topped rock feature that is formed as running water erodes the surrounding rock. Mesa is the Spanish word for table. A canyon is a deep valley with steep sides that is created by water erosion.

Erosion & Deposition Water, wind, and ice can carry small particles such as rocks and sand from one place to another. This movement of materials away from a place is called erosion. Deposition is the process of laying down materials like soil and rocks that have been eroded from other places.

Review How is the way a mesa forms similar to the way that a canyon forms? What makes sand dunes and moraines similar? (Do NOT answer that they area both landforms) Contrast mountains, hills, and plains. You can draw a sketch, but it must be labeled.

Hands-On Activity You have four packs of play-dough at your table. Use three of the packs to create models of three different types of landforms. Pick one of your land forms and use the fourth pack to show me what it would look like in 10,000 years.