A landform is a feature on the surface of the Earth or other planetary body. Landforms create the planet's different natural landscapes. They provide homes for wildlife and humans. Examples of landforms include oceans, rivers, valleys, plateaus, mountains, plains, hills, and glaciers. Mount Everest in Nepal measuring 8850 m above sea level, is the highest landform on Earth. Mount Everest is part of the Himalayan range that runs across several countries in Asia.
Not just Earth, but the comparable structures have been detected on Mars, Venus, the Moon, and certain satellites of Jupiter and Saturn. For instance, despite its modest size, Mars has some stupendously large landscape features. Its largest impact basins, volcanoes, and canyons are far bigger than any found on Earth.
Mars landscape
The term landform is also be applied to related features that occur underwater in the form of mountain ranges and basins under the sea. The Marina Trench, the deepest landform on Earth, is in the South Pacific Ocean.
Landforms do not include man-made features such as canals, ports, and many harbors; and geographical features such as deserts, forests, and grasslands.
The vertical and horizontal dimensions of any land surface are known as terrain. The study of the forms and features of the land surfaces is known as topography.
The scientific study of landforms is known as geomorphology.
Landforms are all not the same. Some may be very high above sea level and other parts may be deep below sea level. Some of them are made of very hard material and other parts may be made of very soft material. Some landforms are covered by vegetation whiles some are void of any plant at all. Some are very large and others are small. Most important of all, landforms are constantly changing because the factors that form them are in action everyday!
The tectonic plate movement under the Earth can create landforms by pushing up mountains and hills. Erosion by water and wind can wear down the land and create landforms like valleys and canyons. Both processes happen over a long period of time, sometimes millions of years. For example, it took 6 million years for the Colorado River to carve out the Grand Canyon in Arizona (USA), which is 446 km long.
Most landforms occurring at the surface of the terrestrial landmasses result from the interaction of two fundamental types of processes over geologic time. These two are:
The features produced by vertical movement of the Earth's crust and by upward movements of magma can be classified as tectonic landforms. These include rift valleys, plateaus, mountains, and volcanic cones.
The features produced by denudational processes are categorized as structural landforms. These are caused by the erosional and depositional action of rivers, wind, groundwater solution, glaciers, sea waves, and other external agents.
Biological factors can also influence landforms, for example, the role of vegetation in the development of dune systems and salt marshes, and the work of corals and algae in the formation of coral reefs.
Although tectonic and denudational processes account for the origin of most landform types, a few have been produced by other means. Few examples, impact craters and biogenic landforms. Impact craters are formed by collisions with asteroids, comets, and meteroites.
Biogenic landforms are produced by living organisms. Examples include the cylindrical mud towers that stand 40-50cm high atop crayfish burrows in the southern part of the United States; badger and bear den burrows; elephant waterholes on the veld (grassland of Africa); and quarries and open-pit mines dug by humans. Giant termite mounds and coral reefs are other examples of biogenic landforms.
Categories of landforms
Landforms can be categorized as major landforms and minor landforms.
Major landforms - The major types of landforms are plateaus, mountains, plains, and hills.
When you picture these landforms, you might imagine large mountain ranges or wide plains. But these geographical landforms don't only exist on dry land - they're found on the ocean floor as well.
Minor landforms - There are hundreds of minor landforms in the world. These landforms are created over millions of years by processes such as wind erosion, water erosion, tectonic activity, weathering, ocean currents, and volcanic eruptions. They're found in various biomes, and despite how sedentary some of them look, they are always changing. Minor landforms include buttes, canyons, valleys, and basins.
Volcanic eruptions
Continental landforms
These are any conspicuous topographic features on the largest land areas of the Earth. Familiar examples are mountains (including volcanic cones), plateaus, and valleys. Such structures are rendered unique by the tectonic mechanisms that generate them and by the climatically controlled denudational systems that modify them through time. The resulting topographic features tend to reflect both the tectonic and the denudational processes involved.
Oceanic landforms
The ocean basin is the ocean floor. The world below the ocean contains a large variety of landforms as well. Landforms under the ocean are continental shelf, continental slope, continental rise, abyssal plain, mid-ocean ridge, rift zone, trench, and seamount/guyot.
Comparison of the patterns in the location and structure of landforms found on the continents and those found on the ocean floor.
| Continental | Oceanic | |
| Low land between hills or mountains | Valley | Rift |
| A deep valley with high steep sides | Canyon | Trench |
| An opening in the surface from which lava flows | Volcano | Seamount and Volcanic Islands |
| Land which rises high above the ground | Mountain Range | Mid-Ocean Ridge |
| Wide, flat areas of land | Plains | Abyssal plains |
Coastal landforms are any of the relief features present along any coast. These are the result of a combination of processes, sediments, and the geology of the coast itself. There are a variety of landforms found in the coastal environment. These coastal landforms are of different sizes and shapes ranging from gently sloping beaches to high cliffs.
Coastal landforms are of two types: erosional and depositional.
Erosional landforms result from wearing away of the land, while depositional landforms result from an accumulation of sediment.
The most prominent factors that influence erosion and deposition involve waves and the currents that they generate.
Erosional landforms that result from erosion, or wearing away of the land, make up some of the most scenic coastal areas in the world. For example, sea cliffs that border many rocky coasts. These cliffs were created when pounding waves weakened the lower portion of the rock to the extent that parts of the cliffs above fall down into the water, leaving a rock wall with rubble at the bottom.
Depositional landforms shaped by the deposition of sediment tend to have lower relief and be less rugged than those formed by erosion. The best-known depositional landform is a beach, which consists of sediments - sand, gravel, or crushed seashells and other organic matter - that have been carried by waves and deposited on the coast. Beaches are formed because waves move toward land and away from it at unequal speeds. If wave movements were identical in speed and duration, the sediments would not be left behind onshore.
