GRADE 11 GEOMORPHOLOGY

HORIZONTALLY LAYERED ROCKS

RAJENDRA DAVECHAND
Horizontally Layered Rocks
• Identification of landforms
• Characteristics and processes associated with the
development

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Horizontally Layered Rocks form:
• When horizontal sedimentary rocks are uplifted without changing their horizontal position.
• When lava flows on the surface cools forming a horizontal layer of igneous rock.
• When a sill (horizontal igneous rock landform). is exposed to the surface
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Humid Areas

• In a humid have a large amount of rainfall.

• The water will result in erosion.
• Sheet wash, a process in which a thin, mobile sheet of water flows over the
surface of a hill-slope, will take place.
• More smooth and rounded hills will form.
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Dry/Arid Areas

• Less rainfall resulting in less water erosion.

• Resulting in rugged hilly landscapes (not smooth) landscape with very little
rounding.
• Slopes are uneven and steep.

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Badlands it is a dry terrain where softer sedimentary rocks and clay-rich soils have
been extensively eroded by wind and water. They are characterised by steep slopes, minimal
vegetation.

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BASALTIC PLATEAU

Plateau

Crust

Occurs when one or a succession of high-temperature basaltic lava flows from

fissure eruptions which accumulate on the surface and cools to form a plateau.

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BASALTIC PLATEAU

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CANYON LANDSCAPES

• A canyon is a landform created when a river causes erosion over a long

period of time.
• A plateau or table-land level is eroded.
• Rugged cliffs form because harder rock strata that are resistant to erosion
and weathering remain exposed on the valley walls.

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KAROO LANDSCAPE

Formation:
• Canyon is widened due to erosion.
• Plateau remains the same height due to cap rock (Layer of resistant rock found
at the top).
• Various landforms, mesas, buttes, pointed buttes and conical hills, form.
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• Mesa is an isolated flat-topped hill with steep sides, found in landscapes with
horizontal strata.
• The width is greater than the height.
• Mesas were created through the process of erosion.
• Mesas were once part of flat, elevated areas of land known as plateaus.
• Mesas are created as streams slowly cut through a plateau.
• Due to cap rock it has the same height as a plateau.

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• Buttes are tall, flat-topped, steep-sided towers of rock.
• It height is greater than its width
• Buttes were created through the process of erosion.
• Buttes were once part of flat, elevated areas of land known
as mesas or plateaus.
• Buttes created as streams slowly cut through a mesa or
plateau.
• Due to cap rock it has the same height a mesa and plateau.
.
• Conical hill result from the action of an entrenched river
that has cut deeply into a plateau. No horizontal cap rock.
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Mesa Butte

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Conical hill
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SCARP RETREAT/BACKWASTING

Wider valley

Adapted from
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SCARP RETREAT/BACKWASTING

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Pediplain is a broad, relatively flat rock surface, generally a result of the
joining the joining of several pediments
• Pediplains are usually formed in arid or semi-arid climates.
• A pediment is a gently sloping erosion surface

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SCARP RETREAT/BACKWASTING
Scarp Retreat/Backwasting is the recession (eroding
backwards) of the relatively steep hillslope.
• Parallel erosion occurs.
• Here the width of the valley keeps increasing as cycle
of erosion progresses.
• It terminates a butte, mesa or any elevated, plateau-
like surface.

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How are Landscapes associated with horizontally layered data are
Used by man

• Humid areas in hilly landscapes can be used for farming. Humid and dry areas
can be tourist attraction involving activities like hiking.

• Basaltic plateaus can be tourist attraction. It has aesthetic appeal and used for
hiking etc.

• Canyon landscapes are tourist attractions with many activities e.g. hiking, river
rafting and hiking.

• Karoo landscape The flat land between landforms can be used for farming e.g.
livestock farming. It can also be a tourist attraction

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Adapted from DBE past paper

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Adapted from DBE past paper: Activity to be done by learners in class

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(Cuestas are landforms which are inclined.)

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