🏞️ LANDFORMS / RELIEF FEATURES World Geography · Ch 11

SSC / Railway / UPSC / BPSC — World Geography Mind Map Series

🗺️ Classification of Landforms

Erosional Landforms

Formed due to erosion in landforms

Depositional Landforms

Formed due to deposition of sediments and debris

🌬️ Landforms Formed by External Agents
  • River / Flowing Water
  • Glacier / Glacial action
  • Marine Water / Sea Waves
  • Underground Water / Karst region
  • Wind (Arid / Desert regions)
⚡ Quick Recall
Every external agent produces BOTH erosional (wearing away) and depositional (building up) landforms.
🏞️ River / Flowing Water
Processes Abrasion, Solution, Attrition, Hydraulic action
🌊 Young Stage (Erosional)
  • V-shaped valley, I-shaped valley
  • Gorge and Plunge Pool
  • Canyons, Waterfalls
  • Potholes: swirling sediment drills hollows into rocky river beds
🌀 Mature Stage
  • River meander on meander plain
  • River terraces: former valley/floodplain levels; point bars: inner-bend deposits. A river bed is not stage-specific.
  • Ox-bow lake
📌 Incised meander Incised/entrenched meander: renewed downcutting into bedrock or valley fill
🌊 Old Stage (Depositional)
  • Alluvial fans/cones usually form at mountain fronts where steep streams enter gentler terrain; not exclusive to the old course.
  • Natural embankments (Levee)
  • Flood plain
  • Delta: sediment accumulation where a river enters relatively standing water
📌 World's largest Delta Ganges–Brahmaputra–Meghna Delta; the Sundarbans is its famous mangrove region.
⚠ Exam Trap
V-shaped valley and Waterfalls belong to the Young Stage; Ox-bow Lake belongs to the Mature Stage; Delta belongs to the Old Stage — river-stage matching is a common MCQ pattern.
🧊 Glacier / Glacial
Processes Abrasion, Plucking

Erosional & Associated Glacial Features

  • U-shaped valley
  • Hanging or suspended valley
  • Cirque: bowl/amphitheatre-shaped glacial hollow, not an ice cave
  • Cirque lake or Tarn
  • Arête or sharp ridge / Horn
  • Pyramidal peak; nunatak: rock peak/ridge protruding above surrounding glacier ice
  • Crag-and-tail: resistant crag with a tapering lee-side tail shaped by glacier flow
  • Roche moutonnée (sheepback rock)
  • Glacial steps
  • Fjord

Depositional Landforms

  • Drumlins (egg-basket shape)
  • Moraines
  • Eskers
  • Kames, Kame terraces
  • Kettle holes
  • Hummocks
  • Glacial till plains
⚡ Quick Recall
Glaciers carve U-shaped valleys; Rivers carve V-shaped valleys — a frequently tested contrast.
🌊 Marine Water / Sea Waves
Processes Hydraulic action, Abrasion, Attrition, Dissolution, Wave erosion

Erosional Landforms

  • Coastal cliffs
  • Sea caves; a graben is a tectonic fault-bounded depression, not a typical wave-eroded cave.
  • Stacks, Blowholes, Inlets
  • Natural Arch
  • Small bay, Chimney rocks

Depositional Landforms

  • Beaches
  • Barriers (barrier island)
  • Spit, Hook, Loop
  • Tombolo
  • Connecting barriers
  • Offshore barriers
🗺️ Major Coast Types
  • Fjord coast, Ria coast
  • Haff coast
  • Dalmatian coast (named after Dalmatia, Croatia — Adriatic Sea)
⚠ Exam Trap
India's western (Konkan) coast is generally classified as a Ria coast — don't confuse it with the Dalmatian coast, which is a separate coast type named after Croatia's Dalmatia region.
🕳️ Underground Water / Karst Region (Limestone-rich areas)
Processes Dominant process: groundwater dissolution of soluble rock; cave minerals form by precipitation.

Erosional Landforms

  • Lapies (Limestone grooves)
  • Sinkholes / Dolines
  • Uvalas (combined dolines)
  • Polje: very large, flat-floored, closed karst depression
  • Blind valley
  • Natural bridge
  • Karst windows

Depositional Landforms

  • Stalactite (hangs from roof)
  • Stalagmite (rises from floor)
  • Cave pillars (Stalactite + Stalagmite meet)
📌 Karst topography found in South India, Mediterranean Sea region (Limestone & Dolomite areas)
📌 Major Groundwater Resource Australia’s Great Artesian Basin: major underground freshwater resource
⚡ Quick Recall
Stalactite hangs from the roof; Stalagmite rises from the floor — together they can meet to form a Cave Pillar.
🏜️ Wind (Arid / Desert regions)
Processes Abrasion, Attrition, Deflation

Erosional Landforms

  • Inselberg (isolated hill)
  • Blow-outs
  • Mushroom rocks / Pedestal rocks
  • Earth pillars/hoodoos: differential weathering/erosion involving water, frost, gravity and sometimes wind.
  • Zeugen
  • Ventifact
  • Dreikanter
  • Yardang (wind-carved ridges)
  • Umbrella rocks
  • Honeycomb/tafoni: often salt/moisture weathering; not exclusively wind erosion.

Wind Deposits & Other Desert Features

  • Barkhan (crescent dune)
  • Loess (silt deposit)
  • Bajada: coalesced alluvial fans forming a piedmont apron; not exclusively wind-deposited
  • Pediment: primarily erosional, gently sloping bedrock surface at a mountain front
  • Corridor (between dunes)
  • Playa (desert lake/flat)
⚡ Quick Recall
Loess is wind-deposited silt in both China and Europe. Much European loess used fine sediment produced by glaciers and reworked by wind.
❄️ Periglacial Landforms
  • Pingo
  • Involution
  • Hummock
  • Palsa
  • Tarn is a glacial cirque lake, not a diagnostic periglacial landform.
  • Talik
📌 Important Notes
  • World’s largest delta: Ganges–Brahmaputra–Meghna Delta (India–Bangladesh); Sundarbans is its mangrove region.
  • Incised / Sunken meander – a sunken river valley feature
  • Karst topography – present in South India, Mediterranean region • Formed in Limestone & Dolomite
  • Great Artesian Basin, Australia: one of the world’s largest underground freshwater resources
  • Chinese and much European loess is wind-deposited silt; European source sediment was often produced by glaciers.
  • Stalactite hangs from roof, Stalagmite rises from floor
⚡ Quick Recall
Periglacial landforms occur in cold, non-glaciated regions with permafrost — distinct from true glacial landforms.
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