Wednesday, March 27, 2013

WORLD GEOGRAPHY FACTS - II


1. Davisian cycle ends in peneplain, Penck’s in endrumpf & kings in pediplain. Kings cycle basically deals with the evolution of landforms in arid & savanna regions.

2. Penck cycle has three stages. Aufsteigende Entwickelung means a phase of waxing (accelerating) rate of landform development where the slopes of the valley sides are convex in plan. Gleichformige Entwickelung means uniform development of landforms. Absteigende Entwickelung means wanning development & parallel retreat of slope continues

3. Boschungen is the upper steep part & haldenhang is the lower part with lesser inclination. Thus the
intersection of boschungen & haldenhang produce a sharp knick. Ultimately the boschungen are reduced to inselbergs.

4. Monadnocks are also known as unakas & mosores.

5. Sinkholes < Swallow Holes < Dolines courses. Ponores are vertical pipelike passages that connect caves & swallow holes. Hums are residual
hills analogous to monadnocks in fully developed karst topography. Lappies are bare terra rosa having
crevasse like pinnacle structure formed where relief is considerable.

6. Speleothems is the term collectively used for all types of deposits in caverns. Dripstones growing
sidewards from stalactites & stalagmites are called helectites & helegmites. Helectites of globular structure are called globulites & banded calcareous deposits are called tavernites.


7. Longshore Drift is movement of sand parallel to the shoreline, in the “along-the-shore” direction. The
process arises when waves approach the shore obliquely. The swash moves the sediment particles up the beach at this angle, while the backwash brings them away fom the beach. This has the net effect of gradual movement of the particles along the shore.

8. Notch is formed as a depression at the base of a cliff due to wave attack. Blowholes formed at roof tops sometimes enlarge & cause the roof top to fall forming Geos or inlets.

9. Big sand bars usually parallel to the beach are called offshore or longshore bar. If the bars are formed such that there one end is attached to the beach & the other end is projecting into the sea, they are called spits. Hooks are curved spits & a bar connecting two land masses is a Tombolo.

10. Old man of Hoy is the most famous wave cut stack located in Orkney Islands, North Scotland.

11. Rias (ria coast) is form when sea levels rise or plate tectonics cause coastal levels to fall. When this
happens valleys which were previously at sea level become submerged. The result is often a very large
estuary at the mouth of a relatively insignificant river.

12. Dalmatian coast are found in Italy & Dalmatian area of Croatia where ranges are parallel to coast

13. Gulf of Aqaba, northeastern arm of the Red Sea, separating the Sinai and Arabian peninsulas.

14. Negev Desert is in Israel.

15. Pedestal or Mushroom rock is also known as Gour in Sahara & pilzfelsen in Germany.

16. Inselbergs or Bornhardts are isolated hills rising abruptly from virtually level plain. Demoiselles have
resistant rock cap at the top. Zeugens have horizontal rock strata & yardangs have vertical. Ventifact with a single face is called einkanter, zweikanter (2 faces) & driekanter (3 faces).

17. Areas of shifting sand-dunes is called erg. Barchans are also known as transverse dunes.

18. Glacial loess of N. America is called adobe & that of Europe is called limon

19. When a basin is more or less rimmed by mountain (inter-montane basin), it is called a bolson. The basin is characterized by centripetal drainage which leads to formation of salty lakes called playas in N. America, “Shatts” in Sahara, ‘Mamlaha’ & ‘Khabari’ in the Arabian desert.

20. The whole slope between the mountains to the playas is called pediment.

21. When two cirques converge cutting back it is called col. A cirque lake is called tarn. Paternoster lakes are formed at the foot of glacial stairways. A nunatak is a mountain top that is not covered by land ice, and protrudes out of a surrounding glacier. Roches moutonnees is a residual rock hummock whose upstream is smoothened by abrasion & downstream is roughened by plucking. Riegel marks the outcrop of a highly resistant rock layer. They have plucked downside.

22. Eskers or Osser or Oss is a stratified deposit. If the ice front halts at regular intervals, beaded eskers are formed. Kames are small hills which are deposited by meltwater near or at the edge of the retreating ice sheets.


23. Kettles are depressions in the outwash plain. Large kettles are clotted with numerous low mounds called hummocks. Drumlins are elongated hummocks of boulder clay (basket of egg).

24. Protalus rampart is the accumulation of debris formed due to rockfall from the cliff.

25. Varve is the yearly deposit of sediment forming distinctive layers. It is most frequently used to refer to deposits formed in lakes on the margins of glaciers.

26. Pingos are ice mounds formed due freeze thaw action in periglacial environment. Palsas are low
permafrost mounds with cores of layered segregated ice and peat, similar to a pingo. Talik refers to an
unfrozen section of ground found above, below, or within a layer of discontinuous permafrost. Tors
are piles of rock on the top & clitters on the sides formed due to congelifraction

27. Borneo is the 3rd largest island in the world after Greenland & New Guinea.