Landforms

Beaches are accumulations of sand or pebbles deposited by waves in sheltered areas. Bays are curved indentations in the coastline formed where soft rock is eroded more quickly than harder rock on either side.

Sea cliffs are steep rock faces at the coast formed by wave erosion undercutting the land. Headlands are promontories of harder rock that jut out into the sea. Both are high-energy erosional features found on exposed coastlines.

Coastal erosion is the wearing away of the land by the sea. Waves use hydraulic action, abrasion, attrition, and solution to gradually break down cliffs, headlands, and beaches, reshaping coastlines over time.

Sand dunes are hills made of sand, found on beaches and deserts. They form when wind carries sand and deposits it, and are stabilised by plants whose roots bind the sand together. Dunes form an important coastal ecosystem.

Waves are formed by the transfer of energy from wind to water. The size of a wave depends on wind speed, duration, and the distance of open water the wind crosses (fetch). Constructive waves build up beaches; destructive waves erode them.

Study of Earth's physical features including mountains, rivers, and coasts, and the processes that shape them.

Earthquakes occur when tectonic plates suddenly move, releasing stored energy as seismic waves. The intensity of an earthquake depends on how much energy is released and the depth of the focus. Earthquakes are most common at plate boundaries.

Fold mountains are formed when tectonic plates collide and compress layers of rock, causing them to buckle and fold upward. They form the world's longest and highest mountain ranges, including the Himalayas and the Andes.

Mountains are large landforms that rise high above the surrounding land. They form through tectonic processes — mainly the collision and movement of the huge plates that make up Earth's crust.

Earth's crust is broken into large pieces called tectonic plates that slowly move on the semi-molten mantle beneath. Their interactions cause earthquakes, volcanoes, and mountain building — creating most of Earth's major landforms.

A volcano is an opening in Earth's crust through which magma, gases, and ash erupt onto the surface. Volcanoes form at plate boundaries and above hot spots, building characteristic cone-shaped mountains over time.

Flooding happens when a river overtops its banks and water spreads across the surrounding land. Floods can be caused by heavy rainfall, snowmelt, urbanisation, or deforestation. They cause damage but also deposit fertile silt on floodplains.

A delta is a landform built up where a river deposits its load as it enters the sea or a lake. An estuary is a wide, tidal river mouth where fresh and salt water mix. Both form at the mouth of a river's lower course.

Rivers erode (wear away) and transport rock and sediment in the upper course, then deposit it when they slow down. Four erosion processes — hydraulic action, abrasion, attrition, and solution — work together to shape the landscape.

Rivers change their character from source to mouth — fast and narrow in the upper course, wider and slower in the middle course, and broad and winding in the lower course. Each section is shaped by erosion and deposition processes.

A river begins at its source — usually high in mountains or hills — and flows downhill, growing larger as tributaries join it, until it reaches its mouth where it empties into the sea, a lake, or another river.