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Home / IAS Preparation / Erosional Landforms: Geography NCERT Notes for UPSC

Erosional Landforms: Geography NCERT Notes for UPSC

Last Updated on Jun 18, 2021
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NCERT Notes are considered important for those who are preparing for the UPSC Civil Service Exam. By keeping all the terms and facts in mind, Testbook gives you the best quality NCERT notes for UPSC exams.

  • Landform is defined as the small to medium tracts or parcels of the earth’s surface.
  • When several related landforms combine they form landscapes i.e. a large surface of earth tract.
  • Each landform has its own specific features like physical shape, size, materials and they are the result of the action of certain geomorphic processes and agents.
  • These geomorphic processes are slow processes and hence the landforms they are formed take time to appear in proper shape.
  • The landform which is formed from erosional activity includes headlands, bays, caves, arches, stacks, stumps and wave-cut platforms.

    • NCERT Notes on Geography Erosional landforms covers the types of landforms formed by erosional activities. These notes are important for other exams like PO, SSC, State civil service and many more. 

    Erosional Landforms (UPSC Geography) NCERT Notes: Download PDF Here!

Types of Erosional Landform

Different types of erosional landforms are discussed below:

Valleys: 

  • Starting point of valleys are narrow hills, the rills which get transformed into long and wide gullies which further get deeped, wider and longer to form valleys. 
  • Valleys are further divided into many types like V-shaped valleys, gorge, canyon, etc based on their dimension and shape. 
  • A gorge valley is known for its depth with very steep to straight sides whereas Canyon valley is categorised for its steep step-like side slopes and their depth is almost similar to gorge valley. 
  • Width portion of George valley is almost the same from both top and bottom part whereas canyon valley is wider at the top portion than the bottom portion. Because of all these small variations between gorge and canyon, a canyon is a variant of gorge.
  • Valleys can also be differentiated on the basis of type and structure of rocks in which they form. Like: canyons commonly form in horizontal bedded sedimentary rocks and gorges form in hard rocks.

Check the NCERT Notes Geography on Structure of Atmosphere here.

Potholes: 

  • Potholes are the rocky beds of hill-streams, more or less circular depressions. 
  • They are formed because of stream erosion aided by the abrasion of rock fragments. 
  • Their depth is more than that of width and are found carved into the rocky bed of a watercourse. 
  • They look like cylindrical holes which are drilled into the bed of a river. 
  • They are commonly seen in the upper course of a river which has enough potential energy to erode vertically and its flow is turbulent.

Study the NCERT Notes Geography on Earthquake here.

Plunge Pools:

  • It  is the deep depression in a stream bed at the base of a waterfall and somewhat similar to plunge pools. 
  • Such pools are helpful in deepening the valley.

    • Check the NCERT Notes Geography on Continental Drift for UPSC.

    Incised or Entrenched Meanders:

    • Feature of the middle and final course of the river is called meandering. Meandering courses are mainly found over floodplains and delta plains where stream gradients are very gentle.
    • Meanders which are very deep and wide are formed by cutting hard rocks. These are meanders also called incised or entrenched meanders. 
    • Meanders are mainly formed because of both deposition and erosion and meanders gradually migrate downstream.
    • Formation of entrenched meanders occurs during the upliftment of land where the river is young.

    Also, check the NCERT Notes Geography on Endogenic Processes here.

    River Terraces:

    • The surface which marks old valley floor or floodplains levels are called river terraces. 
    • They can be in the form of bedrock surfaces without any alluvial cover or alluvial terraces consisting of stream deposits. 
    • They are the product of erosion which is caused due to vertical erosion by the stream into its own depositional floodplain.
    • Number of terraces can be formed at different heights.  
    • Unpaired terraces are those terraces which are present only on one side of the stream and with none on the other side or one at quite a different elevation on the other side. Such terraces are typical in areas of slow uplift of land or where the water column changes similarly along both the banks.
    • Formation of terraces occurs because of receding water after a peak flow, change in hydrological regime, climatic changes, tectonic uplift of land, change in sea level in case of rivers closer to the sea. 
    • Paired terraces are formed from the terraces of the same elevation on opposite sides of either a stream or river.

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Erosional Landform NCERT Notes FAQS

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FAQs

Some of the example of erosional landforms are:Sea cliffs, Wave-cut platforms, Sea stacks, Sea arches.

Terraces which are formed by different phases of cyclical erosion and deposition of alluvial sediments are called alluvial terraces. They are formed in such a setting that generates a staircase. The process like erosion and weathering of terrace fill can lead to a substantive gap in the very archives needed to reconstruct changes in river behaviour .

As during the movement of water across the earth in streams and rivers pushes along soil and breaks down pieces of rock in a process called erosion. During the movement of water they carry away rock and soil from some areas and deposit them in other areas, creating new landforms.

During the formation of stretch coastline from different types of rock, headlands, bays. Bands of soft rock like clay are weaker in nature because of that they can be eroded quickly and this process leads to the formation of a bay. Whereas headland is formed when softer rock is eroded inwards and hard rocks stick out into the sea.

The meaning of meander means a winding curve band of a river or road which is formed from both erosional and depositional activity whereas delta means an area of low, flat land shaped like a triangle,they further get split and spread out into several branches before entering the sea.
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