A landform is a natural or anthropogenic land feature on the solid surface of the Earth or other planetary body . Landforms together make up a given terrain , and their arrangement in the landscape is known as topography . Landforms include hills , mountains , canyons , and valleys , as well as shoreline features such as bays , peninsulas , and seas , including submerged features such as mid-ocean ridges , volcanoes , and the great ocean basins .
13-777: The Don Glaciation , also known as the Donian Glaciation and the Donian Stage , was the major glaciation of the East European Plain , 0.8–0.5 million years ago, during the Cromerian Stage of the Middle Pleistocene . It is correlated to Marine Isotope Stage 16 ( MIS 16 ), approximately 650,000 years ago, which globally contained one of the largest glacial volumes of the Quaternary . The Don Glaciation shows evidence of
26-477: Is based on assumption that the most widespread evidence for glaciation in the Cromerian ought to be associated with the largest glaciation on the global scene. However, the time resolution of current age determinations is insufficient for a clear distinction between MIS 14, MIS 16 and MIS 18. It is unclear why the major glaciation of MIS 16 has left very little evidence in the geological records of Western Europe. MIS 16
39-723: Is believed to correspond to Pre-Illinoian D in North America. East European Plain The East European Plain (also called the Russian Plain , or historically the Sarmatic Plain ) is a vast interior plain extending east of the North European Plain , and comprising several plateaus stretching roughly from 25 degrees longitude eastward. It includes Volhynian-Podolian Upland on its westernmost fringe,
52-425: Is the third or vertical dimension of land surface . Topography is the study of terrain, although the word is often used as a synonym for relief itself. When relief is described underwater , the term bathymetry is used. In cartography , many different techniques are used to describe relief, including contour lines and triangulated irregular networks . Elementary landforms (segments, facets, relief units) are
65-826: The Baltic states ( Estonia , Latvia and Lithuania ), European Russia , Belarus , Ukraine , Moldova , southeastern Romania , and, at its southernmost point, the Danubian Plain in Northern Bulgaria (including Ludogorie and Southern Dobruja ), it constitutes the majority of the Great European Plain (European Plain), the greatest mountain-free part of the European landscape. The plain spans approximately 4,000,000 km (2,000,000 sq mi) and averages about 170 m (560 ft) in elevation. The highest point of
78-900: The Central Russian Upland , and, on the eastern border, encompasses the Volga Upland . The plain includes also a series of major river basins such as the Dnepr Basin , the Oka–Don Lowland , and the Volga Basin . At the southeastern point of the East European Plain are the Caucasus and Crimean mountain ranges . Together with the North European Plain (covering much of Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany and Poland), and covering
91-504: The Universe . Examples are mountains, hills, polar caps, and valleys, which are found on all of the terrestrial planets . The scientific study of landforms is known as geomorphology . In onomastic terminology, toponyms (geographical proper names) of individual landform objects (mountains, hills, valleys, etc.) are called oronyms . Landforms may be extracted from a digital elevation model (DEM) using some automated techniques where
104-639: The four major types of landforms. Minor landforms include buttes , canyons, valleys, and basins. Tectonic plate movement under the Earth can create landforms by pushing up mountains and hills. Oceans and continents exemplify the highest-order landforms. Landform elements are parts of a high-order landforms that can be further identified and systematically given a cohesive definition such as hill-tops, shoulders, saddles , foreslopes and backslopes. Some generic landform elements including: pits, peaks, channels, ridges, passes, pools and plains. Terrain (or relief )
117-669: The most extensive ice sheet on the East European Plain , extending into the drainage basin of the middle and lower Don River in Russia, reaching 50 degrees north latitude. This glaciation occurred before the Muchkap interglacial and the Oka and Dnieper glaciations of Eastern Europe. MIS 16 is a major glacial stage identified through measurements of oxygene isotopes in deep sea core samples ( marine isotope stage ) of Cromerian age, approximately 676-621 ka ago. In terms of global ice volume, it ranks as one of
130-917: The plain, located in the Valdai Hills , is 346.9 metres (1,138.1 ft). The following major landform features are within the East European Plain (listed generally from north to south). [REDACTED] Media related to East European Plain at Wikimedia Commons Landform Landforms are categorized by characteristic physical attributes such as elevation, slope, orientation, structure stratification , rock exposure, and soil type. Gross physical features or landforms include intuitive elements such as berms , mounds , hills , ridges , cliffs , valleys , rivers , peninsulas , volcanoes , and numerous other structural and size-scaled (e.g. ponds vs. lakes , hills vs. mountains ) elements including various kinds of inland and oceanic waterbodies and sub-surface features. Mountains, hills, plateaux , and plains are
143-492: 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 . Landforms do not include several man-made features, such as canals , ports and many harbors ; and geographic features, such as deserts , forests , and grasslands . Many of the terms are not restricted to refer to features of the planet Earth , and can be used to describe surface features of other planets and similar objects in
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#1733085411577156-644: The smallest homogeneous divisions of the land surface, at the given scale/resolution. These are areas with relatively homogeneous morphometric properties, bounded by lines of discontinuity. A plateau or a hill can be observed at various scales, ranging from a few hundred meters to hundreds of kilometers. Hence, the spatial distribution of landforms is often scale-dependent, as is the case for soils and geological strata. A number of factors, ranging from plate tectonics to erosion and deposition (also due to human activity), can generate and affect landforms. Biological factors can also influence landforms—for example, note
169-432: The two most extreme glaciations of the Quaternary , on par with MIS 12. However, in terms of sea water temperatures it is a much more modest glaciation, of similar climate intensity to the neighbouring Cromerian glaciations MIS 14 and MIS 18. The atmospheric concentration of CO 2 was below 180 ppm for 3 ka during MIS 16, the lowest of the last eight glacial cycles. Don and MIS 16 are usually correlated to each other. This
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