The Earth's surface is made up of a variety of landscape types, each with its own unique features. Mountains, plateaus, and plains are the three major landscape regions. Mountains have a high elevation and deformed rock structures due to the great forces that occur when mountains form. Plateaus have a medium to high elevation and are formed by geographical accidents.
Plains are flat areas of land with low elevation. In addition to these three main types of landforms, there are also deserts, taigas, tundras, wetlands, mountain ranges, cliffs, coasts, glaciers, polar regions, shrubs, rainforests, forests, jungles, wastelands, valleys, loess, and soils such as sand or clay. Each of these landscapes has its own unique characteristics that make it distinct from the others.
Deserts
Deserts are characterized by very arid conditions with low precipitation and high evaporation.They can be divided into four main categories: semi-arid deserts, hot and dry deserts, cold deserts, and coastal deserts. An example of a desert landscape is California's Mojave Desert which consists of 1.6 million acres of mountains, canyons, volcanic fields and dry lake basins.
Natural Landscapes
A natural landscape is made up of a collection of geographical features such as mountains, hills, plateaus and plains. Lakes, streams, soils (such as sand or clay) and natural vegetation are other characteristics of natural landscapes. Taken together, landforms constitute a specific terrain and their physical arrangement in the landscape forms what is called topography.Coastal Landscapes
Coastal landscapes are usually characterized by bays and streams that facilitate the construction of ports.These landscapes are often made up of a variety of geographical features such as mountains, valleys and plateaus.
