LANDFORMS Our wonderful earth is full of many different features: Deserts Plains Mountains Valleys Rivers Lakes oceans

The Desert a very dry land with few plants

Desert regions in the United States are found in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma.

Desert Storm was a war fought in a desert in Iraq in the Middle East in the early 1990’s.

The Plains Flat, grassy land that may also be covered with forests or dry grass.

THE PLAINS

The Plains States include North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, and sometime Texas and Louisiana.

The Plains might look like this from an airplane!

Sometimes TORNADOS sweep across the plains, stirring up dust and debris.

Many cowboys and Indians hunted for wild animals on the Great Plains.

MOUNTAINS the highest kind of land made of layers of rocks and other earth materials

A VALLEY is the flat land between mountains. It may have been carved out by a huge GLACIER millions of years ago!

A river is flowing through this valley in the mountains.

THE PAINTED DESERT part sandy desert, part rocky mountains

This shows a trail in the mountains with a plateau in the background.

RIVER a large stream of water that flows across the land into a lake or ocean

Melting snow from the mountains flows downhill, forming lakes and rivers that eventually flow to the ocean!

This river has formed from melting snow from the mountain top. It will eventually travel to the ocean!

Over time (millions of years), rivers can carve deep canyons in the land.

Rocks, boulders, sand, and soil, travel downhill with the river…especially when there has been lots of rain or melting snow!

The Colorado River runs through the Grand Canyon in southwestern United States. It carved through layers of rock. Erosion (rain and ice) continue to erode the canyon as the river carries loose rocks and sendiment that scrapes against the walls of the Grand Canyon.

Cities have grown up along rivers because rivers are useful for the transportation of goods.

LAKE a body of water with land all around it

These states are surrounded by the 5 Great Lakes!

Lakes can be very large like Lake Michigan or Lake Superior, and they can be small like Mona Lake or Muskegon Lake.

OCEAN “ a body of salt water larger than the sea”

The Earth is known as the BLUE PLANET because MOST of it is covered with water. Oceans are filled with salt water, not fresh water like lakes. Only a small part of the earth’s water is available for humans to drink.

The coastline of the Atlantic Ocean

Can you name the ocean animals?

Coastlines can be rocky, but very beautiful!

Over time, natural causes change the surface of the earth.

This can take MILLIONS of years!

What could cause our landforms to change over millions of years? Erosion Weathering

EROSION and WEATHERING can change the way our earth looks. Erosion is the gradual wearing away of the earth’s surface. Roads can crack and homes can be lost! Mountains slowly break away due to changes in the weather.

Erosion and weathering take MILLIONS of years, but sometimes things happen QUICKLY to change the land! Things like: landslides volcanoes earthquakes tornados

LANDSLIDES

VOLCANOES can QUICKLY cause changes in the surface of the land!

Hot lava can flow for miles. It can destroy anything in its path! Eventually it will harden and form igneous rock!

EARTHQUAKES can QUICKLY cause great damage and devastation!

Many NATURAL changes on the earth’s surface result in the formation of new surface features. We can’t do anything about those kinds of changes… BUT… What other things might change the surface of the earth?