Transcript Plains

 Common landforms are:
 Plains
 Coastal
 Interior
 Plateaus
 Mountains
 Folded
 Upwarped
 Fault-block
 Volcanic
 Plains are large, flat
areas of land that have
only small changes in
elevation.
 Often have thick, fertile
soils
 Coastal plains are found
near the ocean.
 Kansas is on an interior
plain called the Great
Plains.
 Coastal plains form when sediments accumulate on
the ocean floor around the continents.
 Sediments come from rivers dumping material as they
enter the ocean.
 Sediments can also come from erosion of coasts.
 When the sea level drops due to ocean waters being
held as ice in glaciers, the sediments are exposed as
flat plains.
 The coastal plains are also the first areas to become
covered by ocean water when glaciers melt and the
ocean level rises.
 A plateau is a large, flat area of land that is
higher than the surrounding land.
 Edges rise steeply from land around them.
 The Colorado Plateau is still rising!
 A mountain is a high, natural place on Earth.
 Elevation can vary greatly between
mountains.
 There are 4 main types:
 Folded
 Upwarped
 Fault-block
 Volcanic
 Formed from forces inside Earth that have
pushed layers of land together, like a throw
rug pushed against a wall.
 The Appalachian Mountains are an
example.
 Blocks of Earth’s crust are pushed up by forces
inside Earth.
 Examples: Adirondacks in New York, Southern
Rockies, and the Black Hills of S. Dakota.
 Made of huge, tilted
blocks of rock
separated from
surrounding rock by
faults.
 Examples: Grand
Tetons of Wyoming
and Sierra Nevada
of California
 http://www.wwnorto
n.com/college/geo/a
nimations/the_proce
ss_of_rifting.htm
 Form when molten material reaches the
surface of Earth through a weak area in the
crust.
 Molten material can gradually build up into a
mountain shape.
 Examples: Mount Rainier in Washington,
Mount Shasta in California, Mauna Loa in
Hawaii
 A canyon is a deep
valley with very steep
sides—often carved
from Earth by a river.
 Grand Canyon,
Arizona is an
example of a very
large canyon.
 A mesa is a land formation with a
flat area on top and steep walls usually occurring in dry areas.
 Smaller than a plateau.
 This one is in Arizona.
 Sea Level is the average height, or
elevation of where the sea surface meets
the land.
 A valley is a low place between
mountains.
 A glacier is a slow-moving river of ice.
 There are valley glaciers and continental
glaciers. Some glaciers even float in the
ocean.
 To pinpoint a location on Earth,
mapmakers use a series of gridlines—or
coordinates.
 These coordinates are made up of:
 Lines of latitude—lines that run around the
Earth, parallel to the equator.
 Lines of longitude—lines that run from
pole to pole.
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The lines are divided by degrees.
 There are 360 degrees in a circle (Earth).
 Each degree is divided into 60 minutes.
 Each minute is divided into 60 seconds.
 Used to measure distances north and south in
degrees
 The equator divides the earth into a northern and
southern half or hemisphere.
 Lines of latitude start at the equator and go north to
the north pole (¼ of the way around the earth) to
90 degrees.
 Lines also go south of the equator to the south
pole (also ¼ of the way around the earth) to 90
degrees.
90°N
0°
90°S
 Begins at the prime meridian (0 degrees), which
cuts pole-to-pole through Greenwich, England
 Points west of Greenwich are measured from 0 to
180 degrees to the other side of Earth going west.
 Points east of Greenwich are measured from 0 to
180 degrees to the other side of Earth going east.
 There are 360 degrees in a circle, so both halves
add up to 360.
0°
 The prime meridian does not circle Earth. It goes
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from pole-to-pole through Greenwich England, but
does not go from pole-to-pole on the other side.
The other side of the earth is 180 degrees.
The equator DOES circle Earth—all the way around
its “belly.”
The lines of latitude measure north and south and
are like rungs of a ladder (lat-itude, lad-der).
Lines of longitude measure east and west from the
Prime Meridian.
 The earth is like a big clock. But it’s a 24-hour clock,
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not a 12-hour clock!
That’s because each day takes 24 HOURS.
There are 24 time zones around the world, which
divide the earth into a clock.
The International Date Line is where the Earth-clock
starts each new day, and the rest of the world follows.
The IDL is really close to the 180 degree line of
longitude.
Time zones are not perfectly arranged. People have
adjusted them somewhat to suit themselves. Go
figure!
Direction of Earth’s Rotation
2
1
24
23
22
3
4
5
6
7
The 24 hour
21 spot is one
hour ahead
20 of the next
spot west,
19 since
Earth
18 rotates
to the
17
east.
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16
9
15
10
14
11
12
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 Maps help you tell where you are and
where you are going.
 Map projections are made when points
and lines on a globe’s surface are
transferred onto paper. All flat maps have
some type of distortion.
 There are 3 types of map projections
 Mercator Projection
 Robinson Projection
 Conic Projection
 http://www.maps-gps-info.com/u-s-mps.html
 Used mainly on ships
 Advantages of using this kind of map:
 Shows correct shapes of continents.
 Disadvantages:
 Areas of continents are distorted.
 Lines of longitude appear parallel (when they
really aren’t). This makes the poles appear
larger.
 Greenland looks larger than S. America (which
it is not).
 Shows accurate continent shapes and
more accurate land areas
 Lines of latitude are parallel (as they
should be).
 Lines of longitude are curved (as they
should be).
 Less distortion near poles.
 Road maps and weather maps are conic
projections.
 Used to produce maps of small areas
 Made by projecting points and lines from
a globe onto a cone.
Weather Maps
How a Conic
Projection is
Made
Conic Projection: Road Map
Other Maps: Interrupted Projection
Other Maps: Plane Projection
Other Maps: Cylindrical Projection
Other Maps: Sea surface
temperature maps
 Show the changes in elevation of Earth’s surface.
 Used by land developers, hikers, and farmers to see
how they need to work with the rise and fall of the
land
 Use connected lines to show changes in elevation.
 The closer the lines, the steeper the slopes.
 Lines cannot cross one another because one
continuous line is always at the same elevation.
Another Look at Topographic Maps
 Click here
Finding Elevation
 Map Scale—the relationship between the distances
on the map and real distances on Earth’s surface
 Map Legend—explains what the symbols used on
the map mean.
 Compass or compass rose—shows the directions
on the map. North is usually toward the top.
Legend
Compass
Rose
Scale
 Show cross sections of Earth so we can visualize
what is under the surface
 Geologists determine what
is below the
surface by
drilling into
rock and soil
to get core
samples
 Google Earth is a good example of a 3-D map.
Remote Sensing
 Remote sensing is
any technology that
can be used to
create maps,
without having to
physically touch
the territory being
described. These
remote sensing
technologies are
often deployed
from a plane or
satellite.
 Satellites circle Earth
collecting imagery
and other data
 for weather
 for climate change
 for spying
 for geologic changes
 for mapmaking
 Stands for Global Positioning System
 Uses at least 3 satellites (out of 24) to
triangulate your location.
 Triangulation involves pinpointing the exact
location of where the 3 satellites’ data (or
more) intersect one another.
 http://videos.howstuffworks.com/howstuffw
orks/38-how-gps-works-video.htm