Erosion landforms

thumb|Lechuguilla Cave, [[New Mexico, United States]]

A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains and typically containing a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams over a very long period. Some valleys are formed through erosion by glacial ice. These glaciers may remain present in valleys in high mountains or polar areas.

A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc shells or coralline algae. Sediments settle in different densities and structures, depending on the local wave action and weather, creating different textures, colors and gradients or layers of material.

thumb|The White Cliffs of Dover upright|thumb|The Trango Towers in Pakistan. Their vertical faces are the world's tallest cliffs. Trango Tower center; Trango Monk center left; Trango II far left; Great Trango right. upright|thumb|Europe's highest cliff, Troll Wall in Norway, a famous [[BASE jumping location for jumpers from around the world.]]

thumb|The southern ridge of the Xueshan Range|Mt Sylvia Range, a ridge composed of several peaks, viewed from the Lishan area of [[Taiwan]]

thumb|Aerial view of mesas in Monument Valley, on the [[Colorado Plateau]] thumb|right|Har Qatum, a mesa located on the southern edge of Makhtesh Ramon, Israel thumb|Ingleborough in North Yorkshire, England thumb|Mount Garfield (Mesa County, Colorado)|Mount Garfield, a mesa in Colorado A mesa is an isolated, flat-topped elevation, ridge, or hill, bounded from all sides by steep escarpments and standing distinctly above a surrounding plain. Mesas consist of flat-lying soft sedimentary rocks, such as shales, capped by a resistant layer of harder rock, like sandstone or limestone, forming a capro

thumb|upright=1.2|Homole Ravine, Pieniny National Park (Poland)|Pieniny, [[Poland]] thumb|Shinturgen pine forest photographed from above. [[Enbekshikazakh District, Almaty Region, Kazakhstan.]]

broad, flat area of desert

thumb|right|The Chinle Badlands at Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument, [[Utah, United States]]

thumb|A gully in Avaré, Brazil

thumb|Cuesta in Italy thumb|Schematic cross section of three cuestas, dip slopes facing left, and harder rock layers in darker colors than softer ones thumb|Cuesta in Crimea thumb| Magaliesberg Range, Transvaal, South Africa

A tepui (), or tepuy (), is a member of a family of table-top mountains or mesas found in northern South America, especially in Venezuela, western Guyana, and northern Brazil. The word tepui means "house of the gods" in the native tongue of the Pemon, the indigenous people who inhabit the Gran Sabana.

natural rock formation where a rock arch forms

protected area

thumb|upright=1.2|Uluru in [[Australia]]

thumb|West and East Mitten Buttes|The Mittens and [[Merrick Butte in Monument Valley, Utah–Arizona]]

natural karst landform consisting of a flat, incised surface of exposed limestone

thumb|300px|Aerial view of the almost flat and drowned peneplain at Belcher Islands, Hudson Bay, Canada, cutting across numerous [[geologic folds.]]

tall, thin spire of rock that protrudes from the bottom of an arid drainage basin or badland

national park in Israel

naturally occurring rock whose shape resembles a mushroom

dry creek or stream bed which temporarily or seasonally fills and flows after sufficient rain

landform of an entrenched transverse valley

long, narrow ridge with a narrow crest and steep slopes of nearly equal inclination on both flanks

thumb|View of Makhtesh Ramon, the largest of Israel's five makhteshes thumb|Makhtesh Gadol's southern "Ribs" thumb|The larger Arif makhtesh A makhtesh ( (); : makhteshim, ) is a unique geological landform found primarily in the Negev desert of Israel and the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. A makhtesh has steep walls of resistant rock surrounding a deep closed valley, which is typically drained by a single wadi. The valleys have limited vegetation and soil, containing a variety of different-colored rocks and diverse fauna and flora. The best known and largest makhtesh is Makhtesh Ramon.

thumb|250px|Dome-like rounded mogotes in Viñales Valley, [[Cuba.]]

thumb|View of a scarpment and pediment in Namibia. The somewhat flat area in the foreground is an incipient pediplain. thumb|Cattle on an Oudalan pediplain, between Gorom and Oursi, Burkina Faso.

landform created by the action of wind

topographic surface which slopes in the same direction as the dip of the underlying strata

formation of moisture, diffused within soil or rock, which accumulates in a localized zone

valley with a V-shaped profile, typically a river valley

depression at the base of a waterfall created by the erosional force of falling water and rocks where it lands

thumb|Chine forming on soft cliffs at Compton, Isle of Wight thumb|Shanklin Chine, circa 1910. A chine () is a steep-sided coastal gorge where a river flows to the sea through, typically, soft eroding cliffs of sandstone or clays. The word is used in central Southern England—notably in East Devon, Dorset, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight—to describe such topographical features. The term 'bunny' is sometimes used to describe a chine in Hampshire. The term chine is also used in some Vancouver suburbs in Canada to describe similar features.

Second largest Makhtesh in Israel

Third largest makhtesh in Israel

Ritten, Italy hoodoos

thumb|Active lavaka on right, with inactive, largely infilled older lavakas to left Lavaka (), the Malagasy word for "hole", usually found on the side of a hill, is a type of erosional feature common in Madagascar. However, Lavaka have also been found in South Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and South Carolina, and similar landforms have been found in Brazil, the Great Plains of the United States, and Eswatini. They are most common in tropical regions between the Cancer and Capricorn latitudes, especially the Central Highlands of Madagascar, where approximately one metre thick la

dune

terrain feature

landscape features that have reversed their elevation relative to other features

association of surface rocks with stream beds or beaches

term for small cliffs in Central Asia

thumb|upright=1.2|A dry gulch in the desert near Tamchy, [[Kyrgyzstan. The creek that may have run along the bottom of the gulch in the past has been diverted to a parallel aryk.]] A gulch is a deep V-shaped valley formed by erosion. It may contain a small stream or dry creek bed and is usually larger in size than a gully. Sudden intense rainfall upstream may produce flash floods in the bed of the gulch. thumb|Witches Gulch found in the Dells of the Wisconsin River

steeply sloping triangular landform created by the differential erosion of a steeply dipping, erosion-resistant layer of rock overlying softer strata.

erosion surface in Southern Norway

upright=1.1|right|thumb|The Horseshoe Falls, Canada|Horseshoe Falls, one of the three Niagara Falls. The falls are a knickpoint, formed by slower erosion above the falls than below.

cave in Georgia

Hoodoos in northern Italy

surface of rock or regolith that was formed by erosion

steep sided canyon carved by the Chicamocha River in Colombia

sandstone hoodoos in Awa, Tokushima, Japan

geographic feature created by glaciation

large-scale surface that is almost flat due to long term erosion or weathering

rock formation in the U.S. state of Oregon

geological phenomenon

ecological, environmental, economic, and humanitarian disaster resulting in land degradation, loss of lives, and properties worth millions of dollars

earth pyramids in the municipality of Percha, Italy