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Introduction to landscapes and landforms
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The Earth’s surface is made up of a vast number of elements that together create amazing shapes and formations. To study and understand all these formations, geographers organise them into groups based on characteristics that are similar. These different groups are referred to as landscapes. There are many different types of natural landscapes on Earth, including mountain, coastal, river and desert landscapes. Landscapes created by people are called human landscapes.
Source 1 This image shows Kirkjufell Mountain in Iceland. This type of landform is a nunatak, which is a mountain that protrudes through a glacier or ice sheet. Iceland is a land of fire and ice. Straddling the boundary between two giant tectonic plates that drift in opposite directions, it is being slowly torn apart. This has produced a series of volcanic mountains that regularly erupt, creating new land. In turn, this new land is slowly worn away by other forces of nature: waves, rivers, rain and moving ice. This is the story of all landscapes: there are some forces that build them up and others that wear them down.
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