Summary
Highlights
The Earth's crust is constantly changing due to tectonic forces, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions, leading to the formation of various landforms like continents, plateaus, and plains, as well as relief features on the ocean floor.
Continents are the dry parts of the Earth, broadly classified into mountains, plateaus, and plains. Mountains are categorized by their origin into fold mountains (e.g., Himalayas, Alps), block mountains (e.g., Satpura, Vindhyas), volcanic mountains (e.g., Mount Vesuvius, Mount Fuji), and residual mountains (e.g., Aravalli, Nilgiris).
Plateaus are uplifted landmasses with steep sides and relatively flat surfaces. They are classified into continental plateaus (e.g., South Africa, Deccan), inter-mountain plateaus (e.g., Bolivian, Tibetan), and piedmont plateaus (e.g., Patagonia).
Plains are flat, low-lying surfaces, and some important types include structural plains (formed by sea floor uplift), erosional plains (formed by erosion of higher areas, e.g., West Siberian Plain), and depositional plains (formed by material deposition). Depositional plains include alluvial plains (e.g., Indus, Ganga, Brahmaputra), loess plains (formed by wind, e.g., Northwest China), and lacustrine plains (formed by lake sediment deposition, e.g., Kashmir Valley).
Oceans cover 71% of the Earth's surface and have diverse relief features similar to landforms. These include continental shelves (shallow sea near coast), continental slopes (abrupt slope beyond shelf), abyssal plains (undulating ocean bed), ocean trenches (formed by folding), submarine ridges (mountain ranges on ocean floor), and islands (landmasses rising above water, formed by coral or volcanic deposition).
The Earth's crust is constantly changing due to tectonic forces, creating various landforms such as continents, mountains, and plateaus. The oceans, covering 71% of the Earth, also possess similar diverse relief features like mountains, plateaus, and trenches on their beds.