Drainage Systems (Drainage Patterns) Drainage systems, also known as river systems, are the patterns formed by the streams, rivers, and lakes in a particular drainage basin. They are governed by tectonic irregularity, nature of underlying rock strata, and the gradient of the land. Based on the correlation between the topology and the direction of flow, drainage … [Read more...]

The landforms created as a result of degradational action (erosion and transportation) or aggradational work (deposition) of running water are called fluvial landforms. Fluvial Erosional Landforms Fluvial Erosional Landforms are landforms created by the erosional activity of rivers. Various aspects of fluvial erosive action include: Hydration: the force of running … [Read more...]

Soil Erosion Soil erosion is the loosening and displacement of topsoil from the land due to the action of agents like wind and water. Soil erosion in nature may be a slow process (geological erosion) or a fast process promoted by human activities like overgrazing, deforestation. Weathering and erosion lead to the simultaneous process of ‘degradation' and … [Read more...]

Tsunami is a Japanese word for “Harbour wave”. A tsunami is a series of very long-wavelength waves in large water bodies like seas or large lakes caused by a major disturbance above or below the water surface or due to the displacement of a large volume of water. They are sometimes referred to as tidal waves because of long wavelengths, although the attractions of the Moon … [Read more...]

Richter Magnitude Scale Charles F. Richter developed the Richter magnitude scale (ML) for measuring the strength (amount of energy released) of earthquakes in 1930s. Because of the various shortcomings of the ML scale, seismologists now use moment magnitude scale (Mw). Both the scales are logarithmic and are scaled to have roughly comparable numeric values. Moment … [Read more...]