Landform

A landform is a land feature on the solid surface of the Earth or of another planetary body. Landforms may be natural, or they may be anthropogenic, meaning caused or influenced by human activity. Together they make up a given terrain, and the way they are arranged across a landscape is called its topography. Examples include hills, mountains, canyons and valleys, shoreline features such as bays, peninsulas and seas, and submerged features such as mid-ocean ridges, volcanoes and the great oceanic basins. Landforms are described by characteristics such as elevation, slope, orientation, structure, rock exposure and soil type, and they sit in a hierarchy that runs from continents and oceans down to elements such as hilltops, saddles, passes and plains. Plate tectonics, erosion, deposition, living organisms and human activity can all create or reshape them. Mountains, hills, plains and plateaus are the four major types on Earth. This entry covers the general concept, not any one named feature.