Different Landforms and Processes Involved In Their Formation

1. Aeolian Landforms - are formed by the chemical and mechanical action of the wind.
➔ The word is derived from the Greek God of the winds, Aeolus.
➔ Different Aeolian Landforms
a. Dunes - are mounds or small hills made up of sand, measuring between 1-10
m high. They may be dome-shaped, crescent-shaped, star-shaped,
linear-shaped, or parabolic.
- The most common type of Dune found on Earth is the Barchans and
it is formed in the direction opposite that of the wind.
b. Loess - is a predominantly silt-sized sediment
formed by the accumulation of windblown
dust.
- It appears yellowish or brownish in
color and it exhibits “cat steps.”
- A product of glacial activity in an area.
- Commonly found in Europe and
Mississippi Valley and Asia
c. Mushroom Rocks - also called rock pedestal,
is a naturally occurring rock that resembles
the shape of a mushroom.
- They are formed by earthquakes or
glacial action.
- Good samples for this landform can
be found at the Mushroom Rock State
Park in Kansas, USA.

2. Erosional Landforms - are created from exclusively erosional and weathering

activities.
➔ Erosional landforms include headlands, bays, caves, arches, stacks, stumps and
wave-cut platforms.
➔ Also called as Table Mountains
a. Mesas - elevated areas of land with a flat top
and sides that are usually steep cliffs.
- They are usually surrounded by a
resistant rock known as a cap rock.
- The Grand Mesa in Western Colorado
displays the basic features of this
landform.
b. Butte - almost similar to mesa as it has a
flat-topped hill and steep sides and are formed in arid to semi-arid desert
conditions.
- The difference is it covers a smaller amount of area when compared to
a mesa.
- Its name originated from a French word which means “hillock” or small
hill.
- Formed by erosion when a hard cap rock overlies a layer of less
resistant rock.
 - The Elephant Butte in New Mexico is one of the most famous buttes in
the world.
c. Canyon - also called a gorge, a deep ravine between cliffs that is often carved
from the landscape by a river, wind, or glacier.
- May appear like a valley except that it is deep-seated, narrow, and
surrounded by steep sides.
- Canyons were not produced by tectonic activities or natural disasters
but were influenced by water and wind erosion over a long period of
geologic time.
- Example of this type is The Grand Canyon in Northern Arizona which
was carved out by the Colorado River.

3. Mountainous Landforms - are those that rise higher than the rest of their
surroundings.
➔ They exhibit slopes, summit areas, and local relief. Like real mountains, they can be
created by different tectonic activities.
➔ Different Mountainous Landforms
a. Volcanoes - are landforms that are controlled by geological processes that
form them and continually act on after their formation.
- A volcanic mountain can be identified from its opening at the top
called vent.
b. Hills - are elevated portions of lands
that are formed by geologic activities
such as faulting.
- They are usually covered with
and are used as grazing lands
for goats, cattle, and carabaos.
- It is possible that hills can
originate from mountains when
extensive erosion occurs.
- Chocolate Hills in Bohol is a
tourist spot where in dry season, the green grasses covering the hills
turn brown making the landforms appear like thousands of chocolate
hills.
c. Valley - or dale is a low-lying area of land situated between hills or mountains.
- They are usually formed by the actions of rivers and glaciers. These
two forces also determine the shape of a valley: V-shaped when
carved out by flowing water and U-shaped when carved out by
glaciers.
- Can be further classified as vale, dell, mountain cove, hollow, and
coon or hanging valley.
➔ Glacial Landforms - are the results of the actions of the glaciers.
- Quaternary glaciations - most glacial forms were created by the movement of
large ice sheets.
➔ 2 Main Types of Glaciers
★ Alpine Glaciers - formed in high mountains.
★ Continental Glaciers - formed in cold Polar Regions.
4. Fluvial and Coastal Landforms - are those that underwent sedimentation, erosion,
or deposition on the river bed.
➔ Glaciofluvial or Fluvioglacial - carried out by meltwater rivers that flow out from a
melting glacier.
➔ Wave Refraction - a change in the direction of waves as they pass from one medium
to another.
- Refraction, or the bending of the path of the waves, is accompanied by a
change in speed and wavelength of the waves.
➔ Delta - is typically a low-lying triangular area located at the mouth of rivers where it
means an ocean, seas, or estuaries.
- It contains rich soil which has been washed away and deposited by running
water.
a. Alluvium - refers to the sediment that has accumulated due to the interaction
of delta and bodies of water.
b. The Ganges Delta - is the largest data
in the world that is associated with
some of the major rivers in the Indian
subcontinent.
c. Other Famous Deltas
- Nile Delta
- Mississippi Delta
- Amazon Delta
- Huang He
- Tiber Delta
➔ Peninsula - also called byland or biland, is a piece of land that projects into a body of
water and is connected to the mainland by an isthmus.
- It came from the Latin word which means “almost island” as this landmass is
bordered by water on three sides.
- Peninsulas are formed by lithospheric movement, water elevation, and
erosion.
- The Antarctic Peninsula was believed by geologists that it is not part of
Antarctica, but rather was part of South America. The present positioning of
this peninsula is theorized to have been caused by the lithospheric
movement some 140 million years ago.
➔ Meander - is a bend in a sinuous watercourse of river.
- It is formed when moving water in a stream erodes the out banks then widens
its valley.
- Every meander has a concave
bank (inner bank) and a convex
(outer bank) bank.
- Spectacular meanders are best
viewed up high in the sky above
the broad flood plain of Rio
Negro, Argentina.
➔ Sea Cliffs - are high rocky coasts that
plunge down to the edge of the sea.
They are the results of erosional actions
of water and wind.
 - Due to their location, sea cliffs are exposed to the battering of waves, wind,
and sea spray.
- Primarily made of limestone and sandstone and these rocks are resistant to
weathering.
- Ideal nesting habitat for many species of seabirds.
- The Cliffs of Moher exhibits an impressive coastline in the world.

5. Plains - are flat and broad land areas that have no great changes in elevation when
measured with reference to the mean sea level.
➔ Plains such as grasslands, prairies, and steeps are created either by sedimentation
of the eroded soil from the hills and mountains or by flowing lava deposited by the
agents, such as wind, water, and ice.
➔ These Plains can be found along the coast, inland, or at the ocean floors.
a. Coastal Plains - generally rise from sea level until they meet higher
landforms, such as Plateaus or Mountains.
b. Inland Plains - maybe formed at high altitudes.
c. High Plains - has an elevation up to 600 m and are influenced by wind
erosion. Example is The Great Plains of the USA.
d. Abyssal Plains - are found at the deepest part of the ocean. They are located
at a depth of 3-6 km between the foot of a continental rise and a mid-ocean
ridge. These plains can also cover more than 50 percent of Earth’s surface.

6. Plateaus - also known as table lands or flat-topped mountains, are portions of lands
elevated thousands of feet above their surroundings.
- They are the results of geologic uplifts or the slow movement of large parts of
stable areas of Earth’s crust.
- Some are formed by volcanic eruptions. Lava from volcanoes spreads out
and creates lava or basalt plateaus. Weathering of land areas also produces
this type of landforms.
- Plateaus cover about 45% of earth’s land surface.
- The Tibetan Plateau - is the world’s largest and highest plateau and is also
known as the “Roof of the World.”
- Most of the deserts in the world belong to this type.
★ Low plateaus - are often used for farming.
★ High plateaus - are suitable for livestock grazing.

Additional Landforms: Philippines

➔ Island
The Philippines is an example of an archipelago. It is made up of three big groups of
islands – Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.

Luzon is the largest and most populous island in the Philippines. Located in the
northern portion of the Philippines archipelago, Luzon island alone has an area of
109,964.9 square kilometers (42,457.7 sq mi), making it the world's 15th largest
island. It is bordered on the west by the South China Sea (Luzon Sea in Philippine
territorial waters), on the east by the Philippine Sea, and on the north by the Luzon
Strait containing the Babuyan Channel and Balintang Channel. The mainland is
 roughly rectangular in shape and has the long Bicol Peninsula protruding to the
southeast.

The Visayas, or the Visayan Islands, are one of the three principal geographical
divisions of the Philippines, along with Luzon and Mindanao. Located in the central
part of the archipelago, it consists of several islands, primarily surrounding the
Visayan Sea, although the Visayas are also considered the northeast extremity of the
entire Sulu Sea. The major islands of the Visayas are Panay, Negros, Cebu, Bohol,
Leyte and Samar. The region may also include the provinces of Palawan, Romblon,
and Masbate whose populations identify as Visayan and whose languages are more
closely related to other Visayan languages than to the major languages of Luzon.

There are three administrative regions in the

Visayas: Western Visayas, Central Visayas
and Eastern Visayas. The Negros Island
Region existed from 2015 to 2017,
separating Negros Occidental and its capital
Bacolod from Western Visayas and Negros
Oriental from Central Visayas. The region
has been dissolved since.

Mindanao is the second-largest island in the

Philippines at 97,530 square kilometers (37,660 sq mi), and is the seventh-most
populous island in the world. The island is mountainous, and is home to Mount Apo,
the highest mountain in the country. Mindanao is surrounded by four seas: the Sulu
Sea to the west, the Philippine Sea to the east, the Celebes Sea to the south, and the
Mindanao Sea to the north.

The island itself is part of an island group of the same name, which includes the Sulu
Archipelago and the outlying islands of Camiguin, Dinagat, Siargao, and Samal.

➔ Valley
The biggest valley in the country is the Cagayan
Valley. Cagayan Valley is the large mass of land
in the northeastern region of Luzon, comprising
the provinces of Cagayan, Isabela, Nueva
Vizcaya, Quirino, and the Batanes group of
islands. It is bordered to the west by the
Cordillera mountain range, to the east by the
Sierra Madre, to the south by the Caraballo
Mountains, and to the north by the Luzon Strait.

The region contains two landlocked provinces, Quirino and Nueva Vizcaya, which are
ruggedly mountainous and heavily forested. Nueva Vizcaya is the remnant of the
southern province created when Cagayan Province was divided in two in 1839. They
are ethnically and linguistically diverse, with a substrate of Agtas, Negritos who are
food-gatherers with no fixed abodes, overlaid by Ilongots and others in a number of
tribes, some of whom were fierce head-hunters (they have given up the practice),
 with the latest but largest element of the population being the Ilocanos, closely
followed by the Ibanags.

Other notable valleys around the country

➢ Trinidad Valley
➢ Cotabato Valley
➢ Agusan Valley
➢ Aklan Valley
➢ Antique Valley
➢ Zamboanga Valley

➔ Plateau
The bid plateaus around the country are found in the Mountain Province, Benguet,
Ifugao, and Kalinga-Apayao in Luzon. On the other hand, the plateaus of Bukidnon
and Lanao del Norte and in Mindanao.

Mountain Province covers a total area of 2,157.38 square kilometers (832.97 sq mi)
occupying the central section of the Cordillera Administrative Region in Luzon. The
province is bordered on the north by Kalinga, south by Ifugao, southwest by Benguet,
west by Ilocos Sur, and northwest by Abra.

Situated within the Cordillera Central, Mountain Province is 83% mountainous while
17% make up hills and levels. The province has many rivers, waterfalls, mountains,
and caves. The central and western areas of the province are characterized by
rugged mountains and steep cliffs, while the eastern portion has generally sloping
terrain.

➔ Mountain Ranges
The Cordillera Central is the highest mountain
range in the Philippines. It comprises about
1/6 of the whole Luzon island with a total area
of 22,500 km2 (8,700 sq mi). The highest
mountain in the range, Mount Pulag, is also
the highest mountain on Luzon Island at
2,928 meters (9,606 ft). It is officially the third
highest mountain in the country after Mount
Dulang-dulang and Mount Apo on Mindanao
Island, the second largest island of the
Philippines.
The mountain range separates the Ilocos plains on the west and the Cagayan Valley
on the east. It also affects the weather pattern in the island of Luzon in such a way
that it acts as a barrier against the Northeast and Southwest monsoons as well as
cyclones crossing the island.
➔ Mountain
Mount Apo, also known locally as Apo Sandawa, is a large solfataric, dormant
stratovolcano on the island of Mindanao, Philippines. With an elevation of 2,954
meters (9,692 ft) above sea level, it is the highest-mountain in the Philippine
 Archipelago, Mindanao and 24th-highest peak of an island on Earth. Located
between Davao City and Davao del Sur in the Davao Region, and Cotabato in
Soccsksargen, Mount Apo is the most-prominent mountain in the Philippines. The
peak overlooks Davao City 45 kilometers (28 mi) to the northeast, Digos 25
kilometers (16 mi) to the southeast, and Kidapawan 20 kilometers (12 mi) to the
west. It is a protected area and a Natural Park
of the Philippines.

Mount Apo is a flat-topped, 3,142.79 m

(10,311.0 ft) (above sea level) high
stratovolcano with three peaks. It is the
highest peak of the Philippines. The southwest
peak has the highest elevation and is topped
by a 200 m (656 ft) wide crater that contains a
small lake.

The volcanic history of Mount Apo is poorly known but eruptions have produced
andesitic-to-dacitic lava. A line of solfataras extends from the southeast flank at an
elevation of 2,400 m (7,874 ft) to the summit. Mount Apo is not known to have had
historical eruptions, and was incorrectly attributed to be the source volcano of the
1641 eruption of Mount Melibengoy, also in Mindanao.

➔ Volcano

Volcanic landforms are controlled by the

geological processes that form them and
act on them after they have formed. Thus,
a given volcanic landform will be
characteristic of the types of material it is
made of, which in turn depends on the prior
eruptive behavior of the volcano. Although
later processes can modify the original
landform, we should be able to find clues in
the modified form that lead us to
conclusions about the original formation process. Here we discuss the major
volcanic landforms and how they are formed, and in some cases, later modified.
Most of this material will be discussed with reference to slides shown in class that
illustrate the essential features of each volcanic landform.

● Shield Volcanoes - gentle upper slopes and somewhat steeper lower slopes.
Composed almost entirely of relatively thin lava flows built up over a central vent. Is
formed by low viscosity basaltic magma that flows easily down slope away form the
summit vent. Most shield volcanoes have a roughly circular or oval shape in map
view. formed by relatively non-explosive eruptions of low viscosity basaltic magma.
● Stratovolcanoes (Composite Volcanoes) - Have steeper slopes than shield
volcanoes, with slopes of 6 to 10o low on the flanks to 30o near the top. The steep
slope near the summit is due partly to thick, short viscous lava flows that do not travel
far down slope from the vent. Show inter-layering of lava flows and pyroclastic
material, which is why they are sometimes called composite volcanoes. Pyroclastic
 material can make up over 50% of the volume of a stratovolcano. Stratovolcanoes
sometimes have a crater at the summit that is formed by explosive ejection of
material from a central vent. Sometimes the craters have been filled in by lava flows
or lava domes, sometimes they are filled with glacial ice, and less commonly they
are filled with water.
● 10 Active Volcanoes in the Philippines
1. Mayon Volcano or Mount Mayon - Mayon is the highest point of the
province of Albay and region, and serves as a major landmark for the whole
Bicol Region. It is ranked as the most active volcano in the Philippines,
erupting 47 times since 1616.
2. Taal - is the second most active volcano in the Philippines, with 34 recorded
historical eruptions, all of which were concentrated on Volcano Island, near
the middle of Taal Lake. The caldera was formed by prehistoric eruptions
between 140,000 and 5,380 BP. As of January 2020, seismic activity is
currently ongoing.
3. Kanlaon - an active stratovolcano on the island of Negros, located 30 km
southeast of Bacolod. Kanlaon is the highest point in Negros, as well as the
whole Visayas. The volcano is a favorite spot for mountain climbers and is the
centerpiece of Mount Kanlaon Natural Park.
4. Bulusan - Bulusan Volcano is the Southernmost volcano in Luzon located in
the province of Sorsogon. Four craters and hot springs are located around the
mountain. Bulusan has erupted 15 times since 1885 and is considered as the
4th most active volcano in the country after Mayon, Taal, and Kanlaon.
5. Hibok - Hibok - is a stratovolcano in Camiguin in Northern Mindanao. This
volcano contains six hot springs (Ardent Spring, Tangob, Bugong, Tagdo,
Naasag and Kiyab), three craters (Kanangkaan Crater, site of the 1948
eruption; Itum Crater, site of 1949 eruption, and Ilihan Crater, site of 1950
eruption).
6. Mount Pinatubo - located on the tripoint boundary of Zambales, Tarlac and
Pampanga in Central Luzon. Once covered with dense forests that supported
a population of several thousand indigenous Aetas, Pinatubo’s eruption on
June 15, 1991 changed the landscape forever. Pinatubo is known as one of
the most destructive volcanoes in the world. The 1991 eruption was the
second-largest terrestrial eruption of the 20th century after the 1912 eruption
of Novarupta in Alaska. The crater lake was formed from the caldera filling
with water from annual monsoon rains.
7. Iriga - also known as Mount Asog, is a stratovolcano about a kilometer from
Lake Buhi. It has a large crater probably formed from a huge eruption.
8. Babuyan Claro - Also known as Mount Pangasun, Babuyan Claro is a
potentially active volcano located on Babuyan Island, the northernmost of the
Babuyan group of islands in Luzon Strait, north of the main island of Luzon in
the Philippines
9. Banahaw - Banahaw is a three-peaked volcano complex and the tallest
mountain in the Calabarzon region. Considered by many as a holy mountain,
Banahaw is a popular hiking destination among pilgrims and mountaineers.
10. Biliran - Biliran is a solfataric active volcano located in the small
island-province of the same name just North of Leyte. Has only one historical
eruption and that sole eruption caused the formation of an island. It also has
four hot springs.