Landforms Tips
Read these 4 Landforms Tips tips to make your life smarter, better, faster and wiser. Each tip is approved by our Editors and created by expert writers so great we call them Gurus. LifeTips is the place to go when you need to know about Natural Science tips and hundreds of other topics.
Geomorphology
Geomorphology is the study of landforms - it's the geological aspect of physical landforms, so you can usually find info in geology texts, but here's a tip: it's often included in physical geography texts as well, so you might include those books when you are researching something in particular.
Geomorphology and Time
Many people look at landforms and wonder how they were produced. The short answer is, the same way they are being produced now.
The same physical processes and laws that operate today have operated throughout geologic time - that is, you can safely assume that rivers eroded their banks and deposited sandbars; storms washed away beaches; and mountains were lifted up and worn away since the beginning of their existence.
What has changed, however, could easily be the environment. Glaciers once extended much farther south than they do today, and seas have at times been much farther inland. The relationship of the continents to the equator has also changed; so while processes like erosion haven't changed, locations and climates have.
Caves
How do caves form? When groundwater moves through cracks and fissures in a carbonate rock (usually limestone) it dissolves it, bit by bit. Over time the crack enlarges to become an underwater cave. If the water table is lowered, or the land uplifted a bit, the underwater cave might be above water and accessible to us.
Lake Formation
Many of the lakes with which we are familiar today were formed as a result of glacial activity. In the United States, northern states can have an abundance of natural lakes because glaciers existed there in the past. Southern states tend to have more reservoirs, created by damming rivers, because glaciers did not extend that far south, and lakes were not created.
| Guru Spotlight |
| Lynne Christen |
