Landforms and Bodies of Water

What Are Landforms?#

Look outside your window. Do you see hills, flat land, or mountains in the distance? These different shapes of the land are called landforms.

A landform is a natural feature of the Earth's surface. Landforms are shaped over millions of years by forces like volcanic activity, movement of ice (glaciers), rivers, wind, and the shifting of large pieces of Earth's crust called tectonic plates.

Landforms come in many shapes and sizes — from enormous mountain ranges to gentle rolling hills to flat open plains.

Why Do Landforms Matter?#

Landforms affect how and where people live:

• Mountains are hard to cross, so they often become natural borders between countries
• Flat plains are perfect for farming and building cities
• River valleys have been home to great civilizations for thousands of years (like the Nile River in Egypt!)
• Coastlines with harbors allow ships to dock, so trading ports and cities grow there

Common Landforms#

Here are the most important landforms to know:

In the next pages, we will look closely at these landforms and at the bodies of water that shape our planet!