Students´ assigment about te shaping of te earth´s relief

1. THE SHAPING OF THE
EARTH'S RELIEF
Sonia Álvarez
Adrián Flor
Gonzalo Ortega
Nerea Pascual
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2. INDEX
1. Granite Shaping
2. Structural Shaping
3. Fluvial Shaping
4. Groundwater
5. Karst Shaping
6. Shaping from surface runoff and torrents
7. Coastal shaping
8. Glacial Shaping
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3. GRANITE SHAPING
• Tors
• Balanced rocks
• Granites boulders
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4. TORS / BALANCED ROCKS
Various blocks of granite on top of each other.
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5. GRANITE BOULDERS
Large, smooth, rounded granite rock shaped by erosion.
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6. STRUCTURAL SHAPING
• Mesas
• Buttes
• Crests
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7. MESAS
Are form because of the erosion of sediments on sedimentary basins
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8. BUTTES
Are like mesas but shorter.
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9. CRESTS
When the erosion forms more narrow mesas, they are call crests.
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10. FLUVIAL SHAPING
• Rivers
V-shaped valleys
• Bed loads
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11. V-SHAPED VALLEYS
In the higher course, the erosive action of the river forms valleys and when they have a
V shape, they are call V-shaped valleys
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12. BED LOADS
In the lower part of the river, it loses strength and the sediments it was carring go to
the bottom of the river forming bed loads.
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13. LANDFORMS FROM FLUVIAL SHAPING
Upper course:
Rapids
Waterfalls
Middle course:
Gorges
Canyons
River mouth:
Delta
Estuary
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14. RAPIDS
At the beginning of a river, there are many rocks and the water has a lot of strength so
rapids are form.
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15. WATERFALLS
At the beginning of the river the terrains is not so eroded so the river forms waterfalls
to continue his path.
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16. GORGES, CANYONS and RAVINES
When a river goes through very resistant rocks, valleys are formed with high vertical
walls called gorges, canyons and ravines.
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17. DELTA
There are two types of river mouths, one of them are deltas, that are a body of
sediments at the river’s mouth as it enters the sea.
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18. ESTUARY
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19. GROUNDWATER
Ground water forms part of the water cycle and it comes from infiltration from rivers
lakes or rain into the ground. It is found in the pores, fissures and cracks of rocks.
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20. AQUIFERS AND THEIR DYNAMIC
Aquifers are layers of rocks or sediments that circulate or contains groundwater. To be
an aquifer it must be porosity and permeability.
-Porosity is the percentage of open rocks that can fill with water.
-Permeability is the capacity of rocks to circulate water inside.
-Water goes down because of gravity through the aeration zone.
-The surface that separate this two areas is called water table this marks the level
water will reach in a well that perforates the aquifer.
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21. KARST SHAPING
Karst is a spectacular landscape formed by the action of surface water and
groundwater.
When water comes in contact with soluble rocks such as salt and gypsum, a dissolution
process begins, which is responsible for this shaping.
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22. SPELEOTHEMS (STALACTITES AND STALAGMITES)
As well as dissolving the rocks, the water also precipitates particles dissolved in it and
formations are created called speleothems.
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23. LAPIES
Grooves are formed by water dissolution as it runs over the surface.
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24. SINKHOLES
A circular depression formed by dissolution or the sinking of an underground cavity.
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25. GULLIES AND BADLANDS
The ground has different-sized grooves called gullies and ravines which form a
landscape called badlands
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26. SHAPING FROM TORRENTS
Torrents are sporadic bodies of water with a fixed course, where there is a big break in
the slope between a mountainous area and a flat area.
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27. The coastal shaping is the form that the coast adops.
Coastal areas are dynamic and changing
The coastal shaping is formed by:
-Movements of the sea (waves,currents...)
-Differential erosion of types of rocks
-Sediments that produce the rivers
-Human action
-Sea level changes
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COASTAL SHAPING

28. COASTAL LANDFORMS
There are two types of coasts. The high coast in which erosion predominates and low
coasts where deposits predominates.
Beaches are marine deposit landforms, and depending of the size of the sediments
could be sandy beaches or pebble beaches
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29. TOMBOLOS/LAGOONS
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30. GLACIAL SHAPING
Glaciers have a great capacity for erosion and transportation. (they are capable of
digging deep valleys and pulling huge rocks along)
-In erosion it don’t select the sediments it pulls
-The sediments are deposited in long strips called moraines.
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31. PERIGLACIAL LANDFORMS
These are located close to glacial areas in high mountain areas. The temperature
oscillates repeatedly above and below the melting point of water. This acts as a type of
physical weathering called gelifraction or congelifraction. It forms an area of fragments
at the foot of rocky walls, called scree.
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32. WIND SHAPING
Winds act on all parts of the planet but two factors are needed for the action to be
effective:
-Abundance of fine loose materials: Sand,limestone or clay
-Absence of vegetation and moisture that fixes materials to the ground
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33. Aeolian or desert landforms
The most well known forms of erosions are desert dunes.
Dunes are formed where the wind meets an obstacle and deposits part of it sediment
load. Once the dune is formed it favours sedimentation.
Leeward Windward
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