Major Landforms Of The Earth: Types of Plains

Introduction

Plains are one of the major landforms of the Earth. A plain is a large stretch of flat land. While plains are typically very even, some may be slightly declining. They are usually formed by rivers and river tributaries. As rivers flow through mountains and hills, their tides tend to erode them. As the rivers flow, they continue to carry these eroded particles with them, known as sediments. Eventually, these sediments are deposited somewhere by the river, and that deposit, over several years, leads to the creation of a plain.

Plains tend to be extremely fertile, and further due to the flatness of the land are extremely convenient for travel purposes, setting up civilization, etc. Due to this, historically, many settlements have made plains their homes. The most famous plain in India is the Indian Gangetic plains. Plains are often divided into different types based on the way they were created; the major types of planes are:

1. Structural Plains
2. Erosional Plains
3. Depositional Plains
4. Glacial Plains
   
   

• Structural Plains

Structural plains consist of horizontal flat surfaces of the earth that have been relatively undisturbed. This means that the bed of rocks in that area was naturally in a horizontal fashion and over years was left unaffected, leading the structural plain. They are often formed by a part of the seafloor being raised. Most continental borders contain structural plains.

• Erosional plains

Erosional plains are plains that were formed over numerous years by the gradual erosion of a bed of rocks or any other rock-based structure. This could be due to running water, Glaciers, river tides, etc. When you throw a shard of glass into the sea, when it comes out again after numerous years, it comes out smooth due to repeatedly being hit by the waves. In the same way over time due to being harshly hit by waves or the wind etc., sometimes certain beds of rocks end up eroding and smoothening, giving rise to a large stretch of flat land, i.e. an erosional plain. Ones formed by wind are also known as pedi plains, whereas the ones formed by water and erosion are called pene plains.

• Depositional Plains

Depositional plains are plains that are formed by a deposit of different materials in a specific area over a long period, leading to a flat stretch of land. An image to understand this better would be if one kept depositing soil in a pit repeatedly, over time it would give rise to a flat patch of land instead of the pre-existing pit.

i.) One of the most famous depositional plains is the alluvial plains. Alluvial plains are formed by rivers depositing sediments over a long period. They tend to be extremely fertile due to the nature of sediments that are deposited by the river. Alluvial plains are quite similar to flood plains. However, flood plains are formed by floods that are currently occurring over a small patch of land. Over some time, these floods give rise to a large flat patch of land; that is known as an alluvial plain.

ii.) Flood plains, as referred to above, are plains formed by frequent floods. Flood plains over a large period create alluvial plains.

iii.) Lacustrine plains are plains that are created in what originally was the bed of a lake.

iv.) Lava plains are plains created by flowing sheets of lava.

• Glacial Plains

Many times, the movement of glaciers creates plains. They are known as glacial plains. They consist of Sandar plains which are formed by the gradual melting of glaciers that lead to deposits of primarily sand and gravel; and of till plains, which follow the same trajectory of melting as sandar plains but instead, the glacier carries different kinds of till.

Conclusion

Plains are stretches of flat land that are useful to humans for cultivation, settlement as well as easy to transport from. They are usually created by rivers and their tributaries but can also be created via other methods. The major types of plains are erosional plains that are created by the erosion of a bed of rocks or other rock-based structure over some time; structural plains that consist of a bed of rocks that were already present in a horizontal fashion and remained untouched over time usually created by the rise of a part of the sea-bed or continental shelf, depositional plains that are created by deposits of different material in an area over some time, primarily by rivers and their tributaries, and finally glacial plains that are created due to the melting of glaciers in a specific place and the deposit of the sediments within those glaciers.