1. What is the Earth’s Surface
Like?
Would you ever live in a cave on the side of a tall cliff?
Imagine looking out your door and finding that you’re high
above the ground. YIKES!
But early people did build homes in high rocks.

2. If you look at a picture of the earth taken
from space, what do you see?

3. Water!
 ¾ of the earth is covered by water. The oceans are the
largest bodies of water. Rivers carry water from the land
to the oceans.

4. What About the Other ¼?
Landforms!
-Different shapes of land
-Includes: mountains, plains, and
plateaus

5. Mountains
 Landforms that rise at least 600 meters above the land
around them.

6. Plains
 Flatland, but often have small hills.

7. Plateaus
 Higher than the land around them, but are
flat on the surface

8. Why Are There Different Landforms?
 The surface of the earth is ALWAYS
changing.
 Some of these changes happen slowly
over time.
 Other changes happen quickly.

9. Volcanoes
 A mountain formed by hardened lava with an opening
through which lava, ashes, rocks, and other materials
may come out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf4iJvrAv-
M&feature=related

10. Active Volcano
 Magma forms when the heat and pressure melt rocks
inside the earth. Volcanoes form when heat and gases
cause pressure to build up under the surface of the
earth. When enough pressure builds up, the magma
forces it way through weak spots, called vents. Then
the magma breaks through the surface. When the
magma cools, it hardens, which forms the mountain
called a volcano.

11. Violent Eruption
 Sometimes a volcano erupts with such force that part of
the volcanic mountain may be blown to pieces.

12. Dormant Volcano
 A volcano that is “sleeping.” It hasn’t erupted in recent
times. Inside, the mountain may be building up
pressure that will some day be released.

13. Effects of Volcanoes
 Volcanoes create new mountains
 Volcano eruptions can destroy mountains
 Volcanoes can create new islands

14. Earthquakes
 The shaking of the ground caused by rock movement
along a fault
 Fault: a crack in he earth’s cruse along which rocks
move.

15. Tectonic Plates
 Large sections of rock that make up the earth’s crust.
 They are always moving.
 This movement causes cracks in the crust, which are called faults.
 When the rocks along a fault move, the ground shakes.
 Most of these earthquakes are not felt by people; however, some
earthquakes can cause a lot of damage.

16. Let’s Review!
 List three types of landforms found on the earth.
 Plains
 Mountains
 plateaus

17. How do volcanoes change the
surface of the earth?
 Volcanoes can create new mountains and new islands.
They can also destroy parts of mountains.

18. What causes earthquakes?
 Earthquakes are cased when the rocks along a fault
move and cause the ground to shake.