Factors and shape
The Earth’s crust is affected by tectonic movements that hit continents, close oceans, build mountains and make the Earth’s surface less uniform.
In fact there are regions with very high mountains, while others are characterized by deep depressions, like ocean trenches.
The creation of a mountain or creasing of the Earth’s surface is due to factors that act from inside the earth and are called endogenous agents. During the years, mountains and hills are eroded: slopes become less inclined while rock debris are deposited on the most depressed areas (sedimentary basins). This erosive action occurs continuously as a consequence of exogenous agents.
The shape and the characteristics of a landscape derive from its structure (rocks and minerals it consists of), the processes that shape the structure and the length of time a specific process takes to act on it. But it is necessary to consider the activities that men carried out on the territory, modifying its shape and characteristics and contributing to the creation of anthropic landscapes, “humanized”, to be distinguished from the natural ones. Anthropic landscapes, in fact, represent the historical result of human culture and activities on nature.
Special reports
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13 May 2013
Small steps, great footprints
Have you ever wondered how much space is taken up by an apple or a steak?...
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28 August 2020
The Earth seen from above: signs of fires
This image was taken by the ASTER sensor installed on the NASA TERRA satellite platform. The image was taken on…
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15 July 2020
Earth viewed from above
Remote satellite sensing: what it is and what it is used for In the scientific field, the images produced by…
30 April 2019
Urban woods
When walking along a tree-lined avenue in a crowded and traffic-congested city, wrapped up in our daily commitments, we do…
12 April 2019
Easter with extinct friends
Easter Island is shaped like a triangle with three extinct volcanoes placed at the vertices, and has a total area…
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13 May 2013
Small steps, great footprints
Have you ever wondered how much space is taken up by an apple or a steak?...
-
28 August 2020
The Earth seen from above: signs of fires
This image was taken by the ASTER sensor installed on the NASA TERRA satellite platform. The image was taken on…
-
13 May 2013
Small steps, great footprints
Have you ever wondered how much space is taken up by an apple or a steak?...
From the Multimedia section
Facts
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Mountains on the Earth
The different landscapes that we analysed in the previous section are distributed...
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The most populated cities in the world
In the last 50 years the world population has passed from 2.5 billion to 6 billion...
Soil erosion
Just like water, air and other natural elements, the soil may be considered a resource; it is, however, a non-renewable…
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13 May 2011
Mountains on the Earth
The different landscapes that we analysed in the previous section are distributed...
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13 May 2011
The most spectacular waterfalls
The highest waterfalls in the world are located in Venezuela...
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Mountains on the Earth
The different landscapes that we analysed in the previous section are distributed...