EARTH MOVEMENTS AND LANDFORMS (INTERNAL FORCES)

Earth Movements
(powerful internal forces
operating from within the
crust)

VERTICAL MOVEMENTS HORIZONTAL

TECTONIC MOVEMENTS
(concentration of great internal
forces within the earth raises
local areas upwards or cause
them sinking downwards)
Sudden Novements
(noticed during
Earthquakes)
{rise or fall of earth surface ,
cause UPLIFT(part of earth's crust
rise in surrounding portion)&
SUBSIDEDNCE(when sinking of a
part of earth's crust relative to
the surrounding portions takes
place), these movements on large
scale build up continents &
palteaus }
MOVEMENTS
(involve both the forces of
compression and tensioon
TENSION: responsible for
breaking of rock layers, termed
as the formation of a "fault'
COMPRESSION: leaeds to the
bending of horzinatal layers of
deep sendiments into shape
known as a 'fold';
folding & faulting lead to the
building up mountains )

Slow/Secular Movements
(continue much longer as
compared to our life
span,movements r relative 2
eachothr ; -ve movement: land
advancing against sea and +ve
movements: sea advancing
against land

EARTHQUAKES: are violent tremors of Earth’s crust.

CHIEF CAUSE: slipping of rock formation along faults and fractures in the earth’s crust. This
happens due to constant change in volume and density of rocks due to intense temperature & pressure
in the earth’s interior.

FOCUS/HYPOCENTER: place of origin of an Earthquake inside the earth

 EPICENTRE:: point on the Earth’s surface vertically above the focus is called epicenter. On the
earth’s surface, the maximum damage is caused at the Epicentre.

Generally, the greater the intensity of the shocks, the longer they last.

ISOSEISMIC LINE: an imaginary line connecting all points on the surface of the earth where the
intensity of shaking produced by earthquake waves is the same.

MAGNITUDE:: a measure that depends on the seismic energy radiated by the quake as recorded
on seismographs;
graphs; measured in terms of Richter scale.

INTENSITY:: depends on the damage caused by the quake; does not have mathematical basis but
the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale is used.

AFTERSHOCKS:: earthquakes that often occur during the days and months that follow some
larger quake.

SEISMIC WAVES: spread out from the seismic focus. These waves are of three main types.

•waves
waves are compressional ; pass thruogh any medium
P Waves •they
they are the first waves to be recorded on a seismogram z
(primary/push)

S Waves •waves
waves are distortional waves; they cant be transmitted by liquids
(secondary/
shake)

•waves
waves travel along the surface of the earth and are recorded after the P and S
L Waves waves.
( surface/long)

The two main areas of earthquakes in the world are

Ø Around the Pacific ocean along a belt of volcanoes known as the RING OF FIRE
.(more active)
Ø From the middle Asia through the Mediterranean Sea to West Indies
 LANDSLIDES
The term ‘landslides encompasses falling, toppling, sliding, flowing and subsidence of
soil and rock materials under the influence of gravity and other factors.

Slope instability may be caused by removal of lateral or underlying support mainly by

river erosion and road cuts, landfill dumping, faulting, tectonic movements or the
creation of artificial slopes by constructional activities.

Large Landslides of India

year location
1971 Alakananda
(Uttaranchal)
1993 Ratighat
(Uttaranchal)
1993 Niligiri
( Tamil Nadu)

VOLCANO ACTION
Rocks below the crust have very high temperature, but the great pressure upon these keeps
them in a semi –solid state. If the pressure weakens then some of the rocks become liquid – called
MAGMA. Within crust, volcanic features are BATHOLITHS: a large mass of magma, which often forms
the root of mountain and is made of granite; SILI: a sheet of magma lying along the bedding plane –
same may give rise to waterfalls and rapids when a mass of magma cuts across the bedding planes.
Some dykes when exposed on the surface resist erosion and stand up as ridges or escarpments.

Sometimes magma reaches the surface through a VENT (hole) or FISSURE (crack). When magma
reaches the surface, it is called LAVA. If lava comes through a vent, it builds up a volcano and if it
emerges through a fissure. It builds up a LAVA PLATFORM OR LAVA FLOW.

Volcanoes pass through three stages:

In the active stage, eruptions are frequent: Mt Etna (Italy), Cotopaxi (Ecuador)

In dormant stage, eruptions become infrequent: Mt. Vesuvius (Italy)

Volcanoes, which have not erupted in historic times, are called extinct: Mt Aconcagua
(Argentine Andes)
 SOME DISASTROUS VOLCANOES

Mt Vesuvius
Mt Krakatau Mt Pinatubo
>standing Mt Pelee
•a small volcanic Mt St. Helens •in the
4000feet above > of the West
island in Sunda Philippines
the Bay of Naples Indies in MAY >in the United
Starits( betn Java & erupted
erupted on Aug 1902 States erupted ,
Sumatra ) violently in
24, 1979. >St Pierre the after 123 years
•the 1883 june 1991
>The city of capital of of inactivity , in
explosuion's after six
Pompeli and the Martinque 1980.
intensity could be centuries of
gauged from the city of compelety dormancy .
fact that it could Herculaneum : destroyed.
be heard in worst affected
Australia

Distribution of Volcanoes in the World

They occur along coastal mountain ranges, as off- shore islands and in the midst of ocean, but
there are few in the interiors of continents. The greatest concentration is probably that in the
Circum –Pacific Region (Pacific Ring of Fire)- accounts for 2/3 of the world’s Volcanoes ; active
Volcanoes in; Philippines- 100 , Andes-40, Japan- 35 , Indonesia – 70.

Atlantic Coasts- has many dormant or extinct volcanoes. Mediterranean region –

associates with the Alpine Folds e.g. Vesuvius, Etna, Stromboli.

The Himalayas have no active volcano at all.

In Africa- Mt Kilimanjaro & Mt Kenya (both Extinct); Mt Cameroon (active volcano)

Landforms formed by Internal Forces

MOUNTAINS They are formed in the process of orogenesis.
Ø Fold Mountains
• Young fold formed relatively recently & higher than old fold mountain; pointer
mountains peaks e.g. The Andes , The Rockies , the Alps, The Himalayas
• Old fold formed long ago, rounded peaks
mountains e.g. The Appalachians, The Urals and The Aravalis
Ø Block Mountains Land betn the two parallel faults either rises, forming block
mountains or horsts , or subsides into depression termed as a rift
valley .
e.g. Arabian Peninsula, the Sinai Peninsula, the Vosgus( France)
Black Forest Mountains( Germany) , Salt Range(Pak) , The Vindyas
 & The Satpuras (India)
Ø Volcanic Mountains called mountains of accumulation as formed by the accumulation
of volcanic material.
e.g. Mt Fuji( Japan) , Mt Mayon( the Philippine) , Mt Merapi
(Sumatra) Mt Agung( Indonesia ) & Mt Catopaxi( Ecuador)
Ø Residual Mountains form due to erosion by different agencies, known as relict
mountain/ mountain of circumdenudation
e.g. Mt Manodnock( USA) , the Niligiri , the Parasnath, the Girnar &
the Rajmahal( all in India)
PLATEAUS
Ø Tectonic Plateaus also called continental plateaus
e.g. Plateaus of Brazil, SOUTH Africa , West Australia, Chhota
Nagpur & Shillong
Ø Intermontane Plateaus when plateaus are enclosed by fold mountains they are known as
Intermontane Plateaus e.g. Tibetan plateaus , Bolivian plateaus
Ø Piedmont Plateaus situated at the foot of mountains
e.g. plateau of Malwa (India ) , plateau of Patagonia(Argentina) ,
plateau of Appalachian (USA)
PLAINS
Ø Structural Plain structurally depressed areas
e.g. Russian Platform, the Great Plains of USA , central lowlands of
Australia
Ø Erosional Plain e.g. Northern Canada , . Northern Europe & Western Africa (all ice-
eroded plains) & parts of Sahara in Africa(wind eroded plains)
Ø Depositional Plain e.g. Indo-Ganga (India), the Hwang Ho Plains (N.China) , the Po
River Plains/Lombardy ( N.Italy) , Nile River- all great alluvial plain
plains of north-western Eurasia 7 PLAIN OF Ladakh – are plains
made by glacial deposition