PHYSICAL FEATURES OF INDIA

A. MOUNTAINS: snow covered peaks, both steep and gentle slopes, features like blocks hence called
Block Mountains; rounded or sharp peaks, waterfalls, cone-shaped trees, rocky rugged surfaces, cool/cold
climates etc. Land forms with heights above 2135m are called mountains, and those between 305m and
2135m are called hills.

B. PLATEAUS: table land, undulating rocky surfaces, presence of black soil (as in Deccan plateau), presence
of hills and not very high mountains at the periphery sometimes (for example, the Western Ghats and
Eastern Ghats of the Deccan Plateau), presence of minerals (as found in Chotanagpur plateau). Plateaus
have an average height ranging from 305m to 915m. The only exception is the Tibetan plateau.

C. GREAT RIVER PLAINS: Extensive flat terrain, long deep navigable rivers, almost no natural vegetation as
the land is entirely given to agriculture. Found between sea level and 305m.

D. COASTAL PLAINS: Always has a sea front, presence of sandy beaches, natural harbours, deltas, coconut
trees and Casuarinas in tropical countries like India, moderate climate.

E. DESERTS: Sand dunes, scrubs, sparse vegetation (mainly xerophytes), camels, date palms, blue sky, hot
days and cold nights.
F. ISLANDS: covered with water on all sides,corals,
ENDOGENOUS(INTERNAL) EXOGENOUS(EXTERNAL
ENDOGENOUS(INTERNAL) EXOGENOUS(EXTERNAL)

• FOLDING, • WEATHERING
• FAULTING • EROSION
• VOLCANIC • DEPOSITION
ERUPTIONS
So formation of a mountain-fold, volcanic, block is the result of internal
forces like folding, faulting or volcanic eruptions.
Whereas formation of plains, sandunes, waterfall, mushroom rock,
stack, beaches, deltas is the result of external forces like erosion and
deposition.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5q8hzF9VVE (CONTINENTAL DRIFT THEORY)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RA2-Vc4PIOY (MOVIE-CONTINENTAL DRIFT) CARTOON

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbtAXW-2nz0 (PLATE TECTONICS)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojxWbZqG-HA(PLATE TECTONICS)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTRu620bIsE
 THEORY OF PLATE TECTONICS.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbtAXW-
2nz0
In 1910-12 Alfred
Wegener (1880-1930)
proposed that the
continents were once
compressed into a single
protocontinent which he
called Pangaea (meaning
"all lands"), over time
they have drifted apart
into their current position
and one ocean
panthalasia
 Theory of plate tectonics.
• The idea of continental drift has been
subsumed by the theory of plate tectonics,
put forward by Arthur Holmes in 1960’s which
explains how the continents move.
• From the deepest ocean trench to the tallest
mountain, plate tectonics explains the
features and movement of Earth's surface in
the present and the past.
• Plate tectonics is the theory that
the outer rigid layer of the earth (the
lithosphere) is divided into a couple of
dozen "plates" that move around across
the earth's surface relative to each other,
like slabs of ice on a lake or like we move
on an escalator.
Plate tectonics-Mechanism
 What does the theory say?
• Plate tectonics is the theory that
the outer rigid layer of the earth (the
lithosphere) is divided into a couple of dozen
"plates" that move around across the earth's
surface relative to each other, like slabs of ice
on a lake.
CONVERGENCE OF CONTINENTAL AND OCEANIC PLATE
TRANSFORM PLATE BOUNDARY