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Landforms
By: Alyssa Perdomo
Volcanoes
There are many volcanoes you
may or not know. The top 5
volcanoes in the world are
Mount St. Helens located in
Washington state, Mount
Vesuvius located in Italy, Mt.
Fuji
located
in
Japan
(currently
dormant),
Mt.
Kilauea & Mauna Loa located
in
Hawaii,
and
Mount
Killmanjaro
located
in
Tanzania (currently dormant).
There are also volcanoes
found in the ocean floor and
even under icecaps, such as
the ones found in iceland. The
biggest one in the world from
this list is Mount Mauna Loa
with piles lavas measured
more than 56,000 feet. That’s a
pretty big volcano alright!
Accessed:
Top- Tes website
Bottom- Tes website
Volcanoes continued…
 Do you know how volcanoes are formed? Well, volcanoes
are formed magma from within the Earth’s upper mantle
makes its way to the surface. At the surface, it erupts which
makes lava flows and ash deposits. The lava hardens. Over
time as the volcano continues to erupt, the pile of hardened
lava will grow bigger and bigger till it can get like Mount
Mauna Loa (56,000 feet). Did you know that the word
volcano originally comes from the name of the Roman god
of fire, Vulcan? Also, some famous volcanic eruptions of
modern times include Mount Krakatoa in 1883, Novarupta
in 1912, Mount St. Helens in 1980, and Mt. Pinatubo in 1991.
Some common volcanic gases include water vapor, carbon
dioxide, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen chloride, hydrogen
fluoride, and hydrogen sulfide. Another fact is that volcanic
eruptions can send ash high into the air, over 30 kilmoeters
(17 miles) above the Earth’s surface.
Plateaus
Do you know what the top 5
plateaus in the world are? Well,
we have The Tibetan Plateau,
The Colombia Plateau (top
picture), The Antarctic Plateau
(bottom picture), The Colorado
Plateau, and The Deccan
Plateau. From this information
I can tell you that The Tibetan
Plateau is the biggest plateau in
the world, which is also called
“roof of the world”. It is still
being formed by the collisions
of the Indo-Austrailian and
Eurasian tectonic plates. If the
smallest plateau in the world is
25,293 sq. miles, imagine The
Tibetan Plateau compared to
that. It measures about 970,000 Accessed:
sq. miles! I sure don’t want to Top- National Geographic website
get lost in The Tibetan Plateau. Bottom- Infomory website
Plateaus continued…
 Plateaus can be formed by a number of processes, including
geological uplift, either due to the clash of continental
plates, pressure from magma below or the burial of land by
volcanic lava and ash flows, finishing in a high, flat surface.
Did you know since a plateau looks like a table, they also
call it a tableland. Plateaus are usually surrounded by steep
rock faces called cliffs, and some plateaus lies between
mountain ranges. Also, plateaus are good for planting
crops. The third-largest plateau in the world is one is South
America that lies in the middle of the Andes Mountains.
Inside North America, the largest Plateau is the Colorado
Plateau covering an area about 130,000 square miles in
Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. . An unusual
balance occurred: the river that would become the Colorado
River was able to erode into the crust of the Earth at a
nearly equal rate to the uplift of the plateau
Valleys
There are many famous
valleys in the world? Ill name
a few, like The Indus Valley
located in Pakistan, Valley of
Flowers located in India, The
Valley of the Kings located in
Egypt, The Panjshir Valley
located in Afghanistan, and
The Nile Valley located in
Egypt. Of course there are
many more but that’s just
some famous valleys of the
world. One of the largest
valleys in the world is the
Great Rift Valley. Except, its
formed by tectonics except
erosion. The world’s largest
valley formed by glacier
and/or river is California’s
Central Valley at 22,500
square miles.
Valleys continued…
 A valley is a long ditch in Earth’s surface. It usually lies
between ranges of hills or mountains. Most valleys are
formed by rivers that erode, soil and rocks. As snow melts
and flows down mountains and hills, it makes river or
streams. These rivers carve into the Earth worth millions of
years, even moving rock! The steeper the mountain, the
faster the water flows. The faster the water flows, the
deeper the valley it creates. Some valleys are steep canyons.
Did you know that glaciers (huge sheets of ice) make even
larger valleys? They slowly move down the mountain or
hill, often following a valley already made by a river. They
round out the valley so it had a U-shape instead of a Vshape. Occasionally, a valley isn’t caused by a river or a
glacier. A valley forms where two plates meet, but it
doesn’t fully touch. Also, valleys are usually protected from
fierce winds or storms.
Canyons
Everyone should know that
The Grand Canyon is the
biggest canyon on earth. But,
that doesn’t mean that the
other canyons are small, we
have the Tara River Canyon
located in Montenegro, Blyde
River Canyon located in South
Africa, Copper Canyon
located in Mexico, Cotahuasi
Canyon located in Peru, and
so much more! The Grand
Canyon is located in Arizona
and ha