identifying 10 geomorphic features and land-forms (rock types, formations, etc.)

Question

identifying 10 geomorphic features and land-forms (rock types, formations, etc.). Please note that you need to identify these features that you have learned in your college geography course. Features that you could have identified before taking the course will not count for credit. Examples of things that count are: composite volcano, sandstone deposit, karst topography, braided stream, coastal features etc. Examples of things that do not count are: valley, water, hill, place, stuff, etc.

Discussing the history, formations and what makes these places and features so important. You will need to write a discussion piece of at least three college level sentences per land-form. Please treat this assignment as a research journal- use citations sources

Explanation / Answer

1. Nunatak

A nunatak (from Inuit nunataq) is an exposed, often rocky element of a ridge, mountain, or peak not covered with ice or snow within (or at the edge of) an ice field or glacier. They are also called glacial islands.[1] Examples are natural pyramidal peaks.?The term is typically used in areas where a permanent ice sheet is present and the nunataks protrude above the sheet.[2]Typically nunataks are the only places where plant life can survive on the ice sheets or ice caps. Lifeforms on nunataks are frequently isolated by the surrounding ice or glacier, providing unique habitats.[3]

2. Cirque

Cirque is a cup shaped or concave shaped steep depressions formed by the glacial erosion. A cirque may also be a similarly shaped landform arising from fluvial erosion. Cliff-like slopes, down which ice and glaciated debris combine and converge, form the three or more higher sides. ?The plucking and abrasion of glacers causes the formation of cirques.

3. Moraines

?Moraines are depositional features of glacier, formed by the accumulation of unconsolidated glacial debris (regolith and rock). The particle deposited may be in the size of boulders to minute glacial flour. Moraines are of different types. Lateral moraines are formed at the side of the ice flow and terminal moraines at the foot, marking the maximum advance of the glacier. Other types of moraine include ground moraines, till-covered areas with irregular topography, and medial moraines which are formed where two glaciers meet.

4. Oxbow lake

An oxbow lake is a U-shaped lake that formed as a free-standing body of water when a wide meander is cut off from the main stem of a river. The word "oxbow" can also refer to a U-shaped bend in a river or stream, whether or not it is cut off from the main stream.[4]?An oxbow lake forms when a river creates a meander, due to the river's eroding the bank. After a long period of time, the meander becomes very curved, and eventually the neck of the meander becomes narrower and the river cuts through the neck during a flood, cutting off the meander and forming an oxbow lake.? oxbow lakes are the old stage features of the river.

5. Butte

A butte is an isolated hill with steep or vertical sides and relatively flat top. These are formed by the weathering and erosion when hard caprock overlies a layer of less resistant rock that is eventually worn away. the weathering process is mainly carried out by the wind. Because of their distinctive shapes, buttes are frequently landmarks in plains and mountainous areas.

6. Ventifact

A ventifact (also wind-faceted stone, windkanter[5]) is a rock that has been abraded, pitted, etched, grooved, or polished by wind-driven sand or ice crystals.[6]?These are mostly found in arid environment where little vegitation interfere with high wind activity. Over time, the bouncing sand grains can erode the lower portions of a ventifact, while leaving a larger less eroded cap. The results can be fantastic stone mushrooms.

7. Levee

??A levee is an elongated naturally occurring ridge or artificially constructed fill or wall, which regulates water levels. It is usually earthen and often parallel to the course of a river in its floodplain or along low-lying coastlines.[7]?The main merit of the levees is that it prevents flooding. Natural levees commonly form around lowland rivers and creeks without human intervention. They are elongate ridges of mud and/or silt that form on the river floodplains immediately adjacent to the cut banks.

8. Sand dunes

?Sand dunes are the heap or hill of loose sand built by aeolian processes or the flow of water[8]. Dunes occur different shapes,size depending on the interaction by the flow of wind or water. Dunes occur in some deserts and along some coasts. Some coastal areas have one or more sets of dunes running parallel to the shoreline directly inland from the beach.In most cases, the dunes are important in protecting the land against potential ravages by storm waves from the sea.

9. Drumlin

A drumlin is an elongated hill in the shape of an inverted spoon or half-buried egg[9] formed by glacial ice acting on underlying unconsolidated till or ground moraine. Drumlins occur in various shapes and sizes,[10] including symmetrical (about the long axis), spindle, parabolic forms, together with transverse asymmetrical forms; their long axis is parallel to the direction of movement of the formative flow at the time of formation.[11]?They form near margin of glacial systems, and within zones of fast flow deep within ice sheets.

10. Fjord

?Fjord is along, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier.[12]?A true fjord is formed when a glacier cuts a U-shaped valley by ice segregation and abrasion of the surrounding bedrock.[13]?Most of the fjords are deeper than the adjacent sea(Sognefjord-Norway). Hanging valleys are common along glaciated fjords and U-shaped valleys.

Reference

1.       Physical Geography: Hydrosphere, 2006, ISBN 8183561675, p. 114

2.       J. J. Zeeberg, Climate and Glacial History of the Novaya Zemlya Archipelago, Russian Arctic. pp. 82-84

3.       ice cap - National Geographic Society

4.       Ox Bow Lake Formation, As Seen By the Google Earth Time Machine

5.       Klaus K. E. Neuendorf, Glossary of Geology, p. 723

6.       ^ Laity, Julie E. (2009). "19. Landforms, landscapes, and processes of aeolian erosion". In Parsons, Anthony J.; Abrahams, Athol D. Geomorphology of desert environments (2nd. ed.). [Dordrecht]: Springer. pp. 597–628. ISBN 9781402057199.

7.       Henry Petroski (2006). "Levees and Other Raised Ground". 94 (1). American Scientist: 7–11.

8.       first edited by Fowler, H.W.; Fowler, F.G. (1984). Sykes, J.B., ed. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English (7th ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-861132-3.

9.       Menzies(1979) quoted in Benn, D.I. & Evans, D.J.A. 2003 Glaciers & Glaciation , Arnold, London (p431) ISBN 0-340-58431-9

10.   The planar shape of drumlins". Sedimentary Geology. 232: 119–129. doi:10.1016/j.sedgeo.2010.01.008. Archived from the original on 2015-09-24.

11.   Spagnolo, M.; Clark, C.D.; Hughes, A.L.C.; Dunlop, P.; Stokes, C.R. (2010). "The planar shape of drumlins". Sedimentary Geology. 232: 119–129. doi:10.1016/j.sedgeo.2010.01.008.

12.   "What is a Fjord, and how is it formed... - Norway Today". Norway Today. 2016-05-08. Retrieved 2017-12-30

13.   Murton, Julian B.; Peterson, Rorik; Ozouf, Jean-Claude (17 November 2006). "Bedrock Fracture by Ice Segregation in Cold Regions" (PDF). Science. 314 (5802): 1127–1129. Bibcode:2006Sci...314.1127M. doi:10.1126/science.1132127. PMID 17110573

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