Landscapes and Landforms

Forming landforms;

• The landforms are formed tectonic plates under Earth moving, cracking, colliding and more

• Weathering, deposition and erosion are all ways landforms are made

  • Weathering - the process of wearing or being worn by long exposure to the atmosphere

    • Physical weathering - The process that breaks rocks apart without changing their chemical composition

    • Chemical Weathering - Changes the molecular structure of rocks and soil.

    • Biological weathering - occurs when plants break up rocks with roots or root exudates

• Deposition - Deposition is the laying down of sediment carried by wind, flowing water, the sea or ice.

  • Erosion - Geological process in which earthen materials are worn away and transported by natural forces such as wind or water.

• Tectonic Plates:

  • They move in 3 different ways:

    • Divergent Movement - They get pushed apart by lava forming

    • Convergent Movement - Push Together forming land to rise like mountains. That’s how the Himalayas were formed.

    • Transform Movement - When plates rub against each other causing faults and earthquakes these lead to tsunamis, landslides and more. Fault Lines are also caused by this or divergent plate boundaries.

  • Mountain Types:

    • Fold mountains: Created by upward pressure where two tectonic plates collide. As the plates converge, layers of rock buckle and are pushed upwards, creating fold mountains. Most of the world’s highest mountain ranges are fold mountains. The world’s largest fold mountains are the Himalayas, which separate southern Asia from central Asia. They have been formed by the collision between the Indo- Australian plate and the Eurasian plate over the last 55 million years. Currents within the mantle are moving the Indo- Australian plate northwards, and its front edge is bulldozing into the Eurasian plate, folding the edges of both plates upwards.

    • Block mountains: Created when cracks in the Earth’s crust, known as faults, force blocks of land upwards. Rocks that are cooler because they are close to the surface tend to crack and break apart when compressed from the sides. Rather than folding, they are often lifted up in giant blocks along fault lines to create block mountains. Geologists refer to this mountain-building process as faulting.

    • Volcanic mountains are created when magma pushes its way from beneath the Earth to the crust. The material that comes out of a volcano builds up the Earth’s surface, creating newland and new landforms. Each eruption brings new material to the surface, as ash or lava or both. As lava flows across the surface, it covers the rocks from previous eruptions and builds up the height of the land in layers. Runny lava can travel many kilometres from the crater and leave behind a shallow layer of new rocks over a wide area. These types of volcanoes are known as shield volcanoes. The more familiar steep-sided volcanic cones, such as Mount Fuji in Japan, are formed when lava and ash do not travel far from the crater. These materials are then left as a new layer on the sides of the cone, building it higher. Most of the world’s volcanoes are located on or near plate boundaries where plates collide and one plate is forced downwards into the mantle. This causes pressure to build up and molten rocks, called magma, to rise to the surface and force their way out through a weakness in the crust.

Take a close look at the compass rose. All the way at the top, at the 12:00 position, you'll see an N. The N stands for north, one of the four cardinal directions. Moving clockwise, at the 3:00 position, you'll see an E. The E stands for east. Further clockwise, at 6:00, is the letter S. S stands for south. Finally, at the 9:00 position you will see the letter W, which stands for west. These are the four cardinal directions, N for north, E for east, S for south, and W for west. They're always read in the clockwise direction. To help you remember their order in the clockwise fashion, remember this piece of very important mnemonic device: Never Eat Soggy Waffles! Or, perhaps, you prefer Never Eat Slimy Worms. It doesn't matter, so long as you remember them in order.

Now, let's go over the intermediate directions. Again, let's start at 12:00 and move clockwise. Right in between north and east you'll see the abbreviation NE. This stands for northeast. In the middle of east and south lies SE. SE represents southeast. Further clockwise you'll spot SW in between south and west. SW denotes southwest. Finally, the last of our intermediate directions is NW, located halfway between west and north. NW symbolizes northwest. Those are our four intermediate, or ordinal, directions: NE for northeast, SE for southeast, SW for southwest, and NW for northwest.

Place and Liveability

SHEEPT:

Social: Factors that impact the community or enhance the community. Equality, pride, community identity, education and mental health.

History: The history of the location. It can be appealing or create an insight on what the emerging history may be like. Historical events, equality of all colonists, perspectives and interests.

Environmental: The natural and man-made environment and conservation of a renewable environment. Air quality, noise pollution, space, rural location, beauty and greenery.

Economic: All elements that relate or apply to money. Whether it be national income, trades, bills, income, inflation, taxes and job application and salaries.

Political: Any political or government state that would affect people. Prime ministers, stable government, dictator, democracy.

Technology: Any tool used for efficiency and improvement of the standard of living. Good wifi, technology and first world country.

Geographical Skills

Bearings: bearings are the degrees on a compass

• North to South is 0-180°

• South to North is 180-360°

Landscapes and Landforms

Glossary:

Landform: a natural feature of the Earth's surface, for example a mountain, valley, lowland or volcano

Landscape: section of the Earth's surface made up of a variety of natural or man-made geographical features. Eg., Deserts, coasts, rainforests.

Environment: a specific place on Earth and all the living and non- living elements that are there

Geomorphology: the scientific field that investigates how landforms are formed on the Earth

Tectonics: Processes within the mantle which build up the various features on the Earth's crust

Erosion: the wearing down, transportation and deposition of material by water, wind and ice

continent****: The landmass on Earth is divided into continents. The seven current continents are Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America.

Fault: a separation or crack in the layers of the Earth’s crust caused by stress and movement of Earth’s tectonic plates.

Geographical Processes: The physical and human forces that work in combination to form and transform the world, e.g. erosion, the water cycle, migration or urbanisation.

Weathering: The physical or chemical breakdown of materials into smaller materials

World Heritage site: A place listed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) as of special cultural or natural significance for preservation for the global community

Photographs:  this year we learned about photographs and what angles are called what, we learned about oblique, vertical, vertical ariel, ground photos, oblique ariel and all of these types of photographs are essential in geo skills and are important for what we need to know about the land or the atmosphere.

Latitude and longitude: Latitudes are horizontal lines that measure distance north or south of the equator. Longitudes are vertical lines that measure east or west of the meridian in Greenwich, England. Together, latitude and longitude enable cartographers, geographers and others to locate points or places on the globe.

Directions: When using a compass you may use cardinal or intermittent directions depending on where you would like to go. An intermediate direction may include: north, north, east or north east and a cardinal direction is north, south , east and west