Tag: geography

Rolling topography,

Topography means the specific arrangement of natural and artificial physical features of an area.Rolling topography is a further division in topography. Rolling topography is any land formation that is not high enough to be considered a mountain. Rolling topography is formed by erosion or some other force in nature like glaciers. Rolling topography can also be formed by the eruption of volcanoes over time.

The formation of the highly weathered mountain range began with mountain building in the Proterozoic Era that continued in the Paleozoic Era through Permian Period (between about 1 billion and 265 million years ago). Uplift renewed during the Cenozoic Era about 65 million years ago, and the modern landscape began to form. The range now consists of gneiss and schist bedrock formed from the re-crystallization of sedimentary, volcanic, and igneous material. Over time, the geology of the region has become a dissected landscape of rounded peaks and wide concave valleys defined on the east by a steep escarpment rising 1,800 feet over the neighboring section. The ranges consist of low (<2,300 feet), moderate (2,300 – 4,000 feet), and high (4,000 – 6,560 feet) peaks. The range has 82 peaks greater than 5,000 feet and 43 peaks greater than 6,000 feet. Mid-elevation soils are deep, well-drained, and acidic, and are classified as “infertile sandy” or “gravelly loam,” while high-elevation soils typically have high organic content.

Karst topography,

Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves.

187,888 lakes

If lake is defined to be a body of standing water larger than 500 square metres, then there are 187,888 lakes in Finland. On average, there are 40 lakes per 100 square kilometres in the district.

Danube River

Created with Sketch. The river rises in the Black Forest Mountains of Germany and flows eastward into the Black Sea. The Danube River is an important international waterway, flowing through or forming a part of the borders of ten countries and through major cities such as Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest, and Belgrade.

Glacier

Spain is the second most mountainous country in Europe, but it isn’t only its mountains that impress.  About 40% of Spain’s land mass is made up of a high central plateau (Meseta) ranging from 400 to 1000 metres in height. 

Covering Castilla-León, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura, and chunks of Aragón and La Rioja, the Meseta is bordered on the north by the Cordillera Cantábrica, split near the middle into northern and southern halves by the Sierra de Guadarrama and the Sierra de Gredos, and rimmed to the south by the Sierra Morena.  

A true fjord is formed when a glacier cuts a U-shaped valley by ice segregation and abrasion of the surrounding bedrock. According to the standard model, glaciers formed in pre-glacial valleys with a gently sloping valley floor. The work of the glacier then left an overdeepened U-shaped valley that ends abruptly at a valley or trough end. Such valleys are fjords when flooded by the ocean. Thresholds above sea level create freshwater lakes. Glacial melting is accompanied by the rebounding of Earth's crust as the ice load and eroded sediment is removed (also called isostasy or glacial rebound). In some cases this rebound is faster than sea level rise. Most fjords are deeper than the adjacent sea; Sognefjord, Norway, reaches as much as 1,300 m (4,265 ft) below sea level. Fjords generally have a sill or shoal (bedrock) at their mouth caused by the previous glacier's reduced erosion rate and terminal moraine. In many cases this sill causes extreme currents and large saltwater rapids (see skookumchuck). Saltstraumen in Norway is often described as the world's strongest tidal current. These characteristics distinguish fjords from rias (e.g. the Bay of Kotor), which are drowned valleys flooded by the rising sea. Drammensfjorden is cut almost in two by the Svelvik "ridge", a sandy moraine that during the ice cover was under sea level but after the post-glacial rebound reaches 60 m (200 ft) above the fjord.