Earth's Surface: Landscape Patterns and Geological Features

Landscape Patterns

Elements of the Earth's surface, including biotic and anthropic.

Relief

The aspect of the land area outside of biotic elements.

Oceanic Crust

Basalt, covered with water almost in its entirety.

Continental Crust

Granite, thicker, less dense, mostly out on the oceans, and continents form.

Oceanic Ridges

(Points creating crust) Alignments of volcanoes with intense volcanic activity. Fissures emit lava through cracks.

Oceanic Trenches

Areas of intense seismic activity, as this point in the oceanic crust sinks into the mantle (point of destruction of crust).

Continental Crust: Mountain Ranges

Alignments of mountains formed by folding the material or volcanic activity.

Continental Shelves

Part of the continental crust covered by the sea.

Continental Slopes

Constitute the edges of continents and include areas located on slopes between the continental platform and oceanic crust.

Chemical Weathering

Breaking up of rocks due to chemical alteration of minerals. Oxidation: Oxygen from the air reacts with some minerals. Dissolution: Affects minerals that are soluble in water.

Biological Weathering

Mechanical breakdown or alteration of the rocks due to the action of living beings.

Clasts

Fragments of rock produced by weathering.

Detritus

Accumulation of clasts falling due to the effect of gravity.

Sediment

Debris collected and transported by a geologic agent.

Sedimentary Basins

Large areas of land that represent surface collapse.

Fluvial Models

• V-shaped valley: The river's erosive capacity fits very deeply into the ground.
• Flat-bottom valley: The river loses the ability to fit as the drop decreases, it loses velocity and forms loops.

Peneplains

The final result of an erosion process. River valleys widen, joining wild waters and other torrents. Three ways to highlight:

• Gullies: Drills deeply into the ground.
• Ravines: Deep valleys.
• Wadi: Channels for running water after especially violent storms.

Erosion Processes: Wind

• Deflation: Carries away smaller materials, leaving larger ones, originating a stony desert called reg.
• Abrasion: Wind loaded with sand polishes the surface of rocks.
• Sedimentation: Loess: Accumulations of dust. Dunes: Accumulations of sand.