Landforms and Plate Tectonics Grade 3 Geography

What will we be learning about?  Different types of landforms and their properties  How these landforms are created  Where these landforms are found  Characteristics you can use to distinguish each type of landform from another

First…  We have to understand how the surface of the earth works  The earth is made up of plates and these plates can move; 250 million years ago, the earth looked very different because since then, these plates have moved around How about a puzzle?

Continued…  So this shows how the plates can move but what happens when they grind up against each another? When the plates hit each other they have to move extra land somewhere and often it gets pushed up to make new landforms

New Landforms  So now that we know how many landforms are created, lets learn about some specific ones Islands Peninsulas Canyons Plateaus Mountains

Islands  Surrounded by water on all sides  Not connected to any other pieces of land  Usually formed by underwater volcanoes or the moving of the earths crust  Can you think of any examples ? Hawaii is actually a chain of several islands. We call this an archipelago. Block Island, RI

Peninsulas  Surrounded by water on three sides, but connected to a larger piece of land on the fourth side  Sticks out like a finger  Can we think of any examples of this? Florida Cape Cod

Canyons  A deep depression in the land that extends in one direction  Has high cliffs on either side  Usually formed by rivers washing away the land around them, this is called erosion. The Grand Canyon was formed by the Colorado River cutting away the rock around it

Plateaus  Higher than the surrounding land, but flat on top with steep, sloped sides  These are often formed by the moving of the earths crust and erosion  Examples? Ayers Rock in Australia

Mountains  Extends high above the rest of the land around it and has steep sides  Formed when two plates from the earths crust push against each other and force land upward  Mountains we can think of? A chain of mountains, like the Himalayas, is called a mountain range. Mount McKinley, AK

Conclusion  So we have learned about 5 new landforms that are found around the world  We can identify them and distinguish them from each other  And we can tell how they are formed  How about a little practice quiz?

Mountain

Island

Canyon

Peninsula

Plateau

Credits  wikipedia.org  amonline.net  discoverourearth.org  thedangchannel.com  rateitall.com  Google images  inkycircus.com  wiki.phantis.com  nasa.gov  destination360.com  virtualtourist.com  traveladventures.org  birdsasart.com  block-island-family- vacations.com  brad-stone.com  taliesonrealty.com