Day 41 – Q 2.Water, wind and ice create wonderful physiographic landforms that have become major tourist attractions. Can you mention some of these landforms with suitable examples?

2. Water, wind and ice create wonderful physiographic landforms that have become major tourist attractions. Can you mention some of these landforms with suitable examples?   

पानी, हवा और बर्फ अद्भुत भौतिक लैंडफ़ॉर्म बनाते हैं जो प्रमुख पर्यटक आकर्षण बन गए हैं। क्या आप उपयुक्त उदाहरणों के साथ इनमें से कुछ का उल्लेख कर सकते हैं?

Introduction:

Geomorphology is the study of landforms, their processes, form and sediments at the surface of the Earth. Study includes looking at landscapes to work out how the earth surface processes, such as air, water and ice, can mould the landscape.

Body

Landforms created by water:

• Cliff: An erosional landform, produced by wave action, which is either at the seaward edge of the coast or at the landward side of a wave-cut platform and which denotes the inner limit of the beach erosion.

Example: White cliffs of Dover, England and Torres Del Paine, Chile.

• Sea caves: The primary process involved is erosion. Sea caves are found throughout the world, actively forming along present coastlines and as relict sea caves on former coastlines.

Example: Fingal’s Cave, Staffa, Scotland and apostle island caves, Wisconsin, USA

• Sea arches: A sea arch is a natural opening eroded out of a cliff face by marine processes

Example: Azure window, Malta and Cathedral Cove in New Zealand.

• Blowhole: When sea caves grow towards the land and upwards creating a vertical shaft that exposed on the surface, it results in a blowhole.

Example: Nakelele Point in Hawaii and Hummanaya Blowhole in Srilanka.

• Peneplain: It is a low-relief plain formed by protracted erosion.

Example: Sub-Cambrian peneplain in southern Sweden and drowned peneplain at Belcher Islands, Hudson Bay, Canada.

• Barrier islands: A barrier island is a sandbar that has grown to become an island. It is long and generally straight and narrow and parallel to the mainland shore.

Example: The Mississippi-Alabama barrier islands and Hatteras Island, North Carolina.

• Beach cusp: It is a formation of sand, gravel or other beach material in the form of an arc. The cusp is the point of the arc on each side, directed toward the ocean.

Example: Islands of Thailand

• Fjord: A long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by glacial activity

Example: Geirangerfjord is located in south western Norway and Faroe Island in Scotland.

Landforms created by wind:

• Barchan: Dunes form where there isn’t very much sand and the wind blows in one direction. These dunes are also called crescent dunes.

Example:  Inland desert regions such as Turkistan

• Inselberg: It is an isolated rock hill, knob, ridge, or small mountain that rises abruptly from a gently sloping or virtually level surrounding plain.

Example: Mount Monadnock in New Hampshire, United States.

• Yardangs: It is formed in environments where water is scarce and the prevailing winds are strong, uni-directional, and carry an abrasive sediment load.

Example: Xiniang Yardang, China

Landforms created by Ice:

• Cirque: It is an amphitheatre-like valley formed by glacial erosion. 

Example: Circo de Gredos in Spain and Cirque de Garvanie in France.

• Horn: A horn results when glaciers erode three or more arêtes, usually forming a sharp-edged peak.

Example: Flinsch Peak in Glacier National Park, Montana

• Drumlin: Drumlins and drumlin clusters are glacial landforms composed primarily of glacial till.

Example: Drowned drumlin in Clew Bay, Ireland

• Hanging valley: A hanging valley is elevated above another valley, with one end open to the valley below. There may be a cliff or steep formation where they meet.

Example:  Hanging Valleys of Yosemite National Park, California, USA and Birdman Woman Falls, Glacier National Park, Montana, USA

Conclusion

A tourist landscape can be described as constructed through a large number of symbolic and material transformations of an original physical and/or socioeconomic landscape in order to serve the interests of tourists and the tourist industry