Landforms

Physical characteristics

Landforms are categorized by characteristic physical attributes such as elevation, slope, orientation, and structure stratification, rock exposure, and soil type. Gross physical features or landforms include intuitive elements such as berms, cliffs, hills, mounds, peninsulas, ridges, rivers, valleys, 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. Hills, mountains, plains, and plateaus are the four major types of landforms on Earth. Minor landforms include basins, buttes, canyons, and valleys. The tectonic plate movements under Earth's crust can create landforms by pushing up hills and mountains.