When the earth started cooling from its hot molten state, the crust settled into many interesting landforms. As we look around our earth, we see that there are o many kinds of landforms.
Large blocks of land on the earth are called continents Asia, Africa, and Europe, North America, South America, Australia and Antarctica are all continents.
Land is high or low, wet or dry, hot or cold. Where lands are high, we call them mountains or hills. Extended groups of mountains are called ranges. The Alps in Europe, the Rockies n North America, and the Andes in South America and the Himalayas in Asia are big mountain ranges.
There are also isolated hills and small ranges like the Thirupathi hills, Siwalik Hills and Aravalli hills.
Some mountains have rivers of moving ice called glaciers. Some mountains split out fire and molten rock. These are volcanoes. Mt. Fujiyama, Mt. Etna, Cotopaxi and Mona Lua are volcanic mountains, sometimes; molten lava comes out through long narrow cracks in the earth. This slowly spreads out in sheets and builds high flat lands. These wide flat lands, rugged and fairly high above the sea level, are called volcanic plateaus/tablelands. Raised parts of the earth’s surface which are higher than hills are also called tablelands/plateaus.
The Deccan plateau is a volcanic plateau. Tibet and Malwa plateau are examples of non volcanic plateaus/tablelands.
Plains and valleys are lower and flatter lands. Lands between mountains and hills are called valleys. Plains are bigger than valleys. Rivers from the mountains deposit slit and build plains. The Ganga plains and the Mississippi plains are examples of vast plains built by the rivers.
The coastal plains lie along the seas and slope down to the water bodies. Some coasts are sandy and some coasts are rocky.
Large pieces of land with water all around them are called islands. Sri Lanka, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Japan are islands.
Small bodies of water with land around them are called lakes. Lakes are seen both in highlands and lowlands. Some mountain lakes are large and grand like the Lake Manasarovar, Lake Titicaca and Lake Dal. Many beautiful water birds like the Himalayan swan move from one lake to the other. Flamingos and Saras cranes are also seen along lakes.
A peninsula is a long neck of land ending in a headland. Peninsular land has water on three sides. India is a peninsula. Italy is a peninsula too.
A point at the very tip a headline is called a cape. The Cape of Good Hope in Africa and the Cape Horn in South America are well –known examples.