Landforms are the shapes of the land on Earth's surface.
There are three basic types: plains, plateaus, and mountains.


(picture from Glencoe text, Earth Science)

Geomorphology is the science that studies how landforms are made.

Plains are large, flat areas.

Plains found near the ocean are called Coastal Plains.
Plains found in the middle of a continent are called Interior Plains.

Plateaus are flat, raised areas of land made of horizontal rocks. The horizontal rocks were lifted up by forces inside the Earth.

Mountains are lands that rise high above the surrounding land. There are four main kinds of mountains:
folded, upwarped, fault-block, and volcanic.

Folded Mountains are made from rock layers that were squeezed from opposite sides causing the rock layers to fold. The Appalachian Mountains (photo) in the eastern United States are an example of folded mountains.

Unwarped Mountains are made when the crust was pushed upward by forces inside the Earth. The Rocky Mounains in Colorado and New Mexico (photo), the Black Hills of South Dakota (photo), and the Adirondak Mountains of New York (photo) are all examples of unwarped mountains.

Fault-Block Mountains are made of huge tilted blocks of rocks that are separated from surrounding rocks by faults. A fault is a huge crack in the rocks. The Grand Teton Mountains (Wyoming) and the Sierra Nevada Mountains (California) are examples of fault-block mountains. (photo 1)

Volcanic Mountains are made when layers of lava reach the surface and form cone-shaped mountains. The Hawaiian Islands were made from volcanoes under the ocean.

Other important landform vocabulary are:

archipelago channel gulf peninsula trench
atoll cliff hill prairie tributary
bay continent island river tundra
bog dune lagoon sea valley
butte estuary lake sound waterfall
canyon fjord marsh source wetland
cape geyser meadow straight  
cave glacier mesa swamp  

 

Landform Links:

Landforms

NASA Visible Earth Landforms

NASA Earth From Space

Landforms Glossary