Introduction to Natural Landscapes

This was made by Rob W. Thanks for letting me use this with my students.

1. Introduction to Natural Introduction to Natural
LandscapesLandscapes
AS90331AS90331
Explain a Natural LandscapeExplain a Natural Landscape

2. Assessment Specifications Assessment Specifications
•Variations within a natural landscape
–This refers to how and why features of the environment
have spatial variation within the landscape area
•How a landscape evolves and changes, which
refers to:
–Climatic processes
–Tectonic and other internal processes
–Erosion, transportation, deposition and other surface
processes.

3. •The effect of cultural perspectives and
human activities on a natural landscape
–This refers to particular ways in which groups
of people interpret and explain landscapes
through their knowledge, practices and beliefs

4. SettingsSettings
•Continental Scale Setting
–The Amazon Basin
•New Zealand Setting
–Tongariro Volcanic Centre

5. What is a Natural Landscape?What is a Natural Landscape?
•View the following images and state
whether you consider them to be natural
landscapes

8. Defining Natural LandscapesDefining Natural Landscapes
•What do we mean by natural?
–Parts of the environment that are present
within it without the influence of people
•What do we mean by landscape?
–All the features of the environment that can be
seen or observed

9. Describing a LandscapeDescribing a Landscape
•Concentrating on a couple of the images
we have already looked at, how can we
describe the landscape in more detail?

12. Elements of a LandscapeElements of a Landscape
•Relief: The height and shape of the land,
and the processes that have formed it
over geological time
•Climate: the average weather conditions
over a long period of time, and the
processes causing these conditions. This
includes rainfall, temperature, sunshine
hours, wind and humidity

13. •Soils: weathered or eroded material
produced from rocks. Of interest are type,
fertility, and drainage
•Biotic System: the plants and animals in a
particular landscape and their effect on it.

14. Interaction Model Interaction Model
RELIEF
SOILS
CLIMATE
BIOTIC
SYSTEM

15. Relief Patterns and ProcessesRelief Patterns and Processes
•Match the words from the list below with their correct definition
MOUNTAINS PLATEAUSROLLING HILL COUNTRY
ROUGH HILL COUNTRY PLAINS
•Areas of flat, low, land (under 200m in elevation); mostly found
in coastal areas.
•Area of flat upland; the most prominent one of these in NZ is in
the central North Island
•Gently undulating hill country, found mostly in the North Island
•Steep land that rises much higher than the surrounding
landscape, either as a single feature or in a chain or range over
1000m or over 340m from summit to base. Makes up 70% of
the South Island so is the dominant landform type in NZ
•Areas lower than 1000m with rugged relief and often steep
land, common in the North Island

16. AnswersAnswers
•PLAINS: Areas of flat, low, land (under 200m in
elevation); mostly found in coastal areas.
•PLATEAUS: Area of flat upland; the most prominent one
of these in NZ is in the central North Island
•ROLLING HILL COUNTRY: Gently undulating hill
country, found mostly in the North Island
•MOUNTAINS: Steep land that rise much higher than the
surrounding landscape, either as a single feature or in a
chain or range over 1000m or over 340m from summit to
base. Makes up 70% of the South Island so is the
dominant landform type in NZ
•ROUGH HILL COUNTRY: Areas lower than 1000m with
rugged relief and often steep land, common in the North
Island

17. New Zealand’s Landform PatternsNew Zealand’s Landform Patterns
•Use an appropriate graphing technique to
display the information on the next slide
regarding the pattern of New Zealand’s
landforms
•Make sure you use all of the correct
graphing conventions for the type of graph
you have chosen

18. New Zealand’s Landform PatternsNew Zealand’s Landform Patterns
9 0 9 12 70
South
Island
5 6 26 45 18
North
Island
8 3 15 25 49
New
Zealand
% Plains % Plateau % Rolling
Hill
Country
% Rough
Hill
Country
%
Mountain
s

19. Cycle of LandformingCycle of Landforming
Land Building Processes
Folding
Faulting
Volcanism
Land Modifying Processes
Erosion
Weathering Transportation
Deposition
Causes of erosion
Glaciers Rivers
Wind Waves
Freezing and Thawing

20. •In places where the surface is fractured or
broken these convection current move large
sections of the Earth’s crust known as tectonic
plates. This process is known as plate
tectonics.
•Volcanism occurs when descending oceanic
rock escapes through the surface through a
weakness.
•Typical features of volcanic landscapes include:
mud pools, geysers, hot springs, etc.

21. Land Building Processes - Land Building Processes -
VolcanismVolcanism
•The core of the earth is extremely hot,
estimated to be about 7000°C. As you
move towards the surface of the earth, this
temperature cools. This temperature
differential forms a convection current,
where molten rock heats up away from the
core and as it nears the surface cools and
sinks, with this sequence being repeated
over and over again.

22. Land Building Processes – Land Building Processes –
Folding and Faulting Folding and Faulting
•Faulting is the movement of the earth’s
plates along zones of weakness. It is the
result of pressure building up and causing
old brittle rocks to shatter and move in
blocks. The land shifts upwards,
downwards, or sideways. In NZ they
tend to run in a NE to SW direction; the
largest example of which is known as the
Alpine Fault

23. •Folding is the process by which
sedimentary rock is pushed and squeezed
as hard surrounding rock is moved by
plate tectonics. The soft rock twists and
bends into folds rather than fracture like
hard rock would. This creates a more
rolling landscape than what faulting
does.

24. Erosion, Transportation, and Erosion, Transportation, and
Deposition Deposition
•Erosion is the general term that is used to
describe the wearing down and
subsequent transportation of the earth’s
surface
•The Three stages are:
Erosion Transportatio
n
Deposition

25. Different types of erosion
Fluvial
–Caused by the action of rivers
Glacial
–Caused by the action glaciers
Freeze-Thaw
–Caused by the freezing and melting of water in rocks. As water
freezes and can cause rocks to shatter
Aeolian
–Caused by the movement of wind
Waves
–Caused by the action of waves

26. Climate Processes Climate Processes
The Water Cycle
•Interception
•Infiltration
•Runoff
•Precipitation
•Groundwater flow
•Stream and river
flow
•Movement of
atmospheric
moisture
•Evaporation
•Ocean
•Evaporation from
land, vegetation,
rivers, and lakes
•Storage areas (lake,
wetland)
1
7
6
5
4
3
2
11
10
9
8
Copy the diagram above and use the list
from the column to label correctly each of
the different processes involved in the
Water Cycle

27. Answers
2.Interception
3.Infiltration
4.Groundwater flow
5.Stream and river flow
6.Ocean
7.Evaporation
8.Movement of atmospheric moisture
9.Storage areas (lake, wetland)
10.Evaporation from land, vegetation, rivers, and lakes
11.Precipitation
12.Runoff

28. Types of RainfallTypes of Rainfall
Orographic
Moist air forced to
rise
Rain shadow on
leeward side
Air warms
as it
descends
Air cools
as it rises
Rain
Dry

29. Convectional
Warm Surface
Warm moist
air rising
Altitude
Convectional Rainfall

30. Frontal – Warm Front
Drizzle
Warmer air
nimbostratus
Frontal
surface
Wide band of heavy
rain
Cooler air
(denser)

31. Frontal – Cold Front
Narrow bank
of heavy rain
Cumulus
Cumulonimbus
Squalls
Cold air (denser)
Warm air
(less
dense)
Frontal
surface

32. Climate Controls Climate Controls
•Latitude: Generally the closer to the Equator the
warmer the temperature. This is because light at
the Equator hits at less of an angle than at the
poles. Northland at 36°S has an average temp of
14°C, whereas Southland at 46°S has an
average temp of 10°C.
•Altitude: Saturated air cools at the rate of 0.6°C
per 100 vertical metres.
•Relief: This can cause orographic rain (e.g. West
Coast South Island) and cause wind funnelling
(e.g. Cook Strait).

33. •Size of landform: Small landmasses have climates
moderated by the sea whereas large landmasses have
extremes of climate.
•Proximity to oceans: Sea breezes moderate the climate
•Ocean current: Air masses passing over warm ocean
create warm breezes and vice versa.
•Wind and Pressure systems: The world is divided into
different zones of pressure. The Equator has low
pressure, and the Poles have high pressure. In general,
the direction of wind movement is from high to low
pressure air masses.

34. Soil Patterns and Processes Soil Patterns and Processes
Soil is material on the earth’s surface
produced by rocks (parent material) which
has been altered by physical, chemical
and biological weathering.
There are 4 factors that contribute to soil
development. They are:

35. •Climate: particularly temperature and precipitation
•Relief: in particular slope angle. Steep slopes will have
poor shallow soils as erosion easily takes place. On flatter
slopes alluvium (material deposited by rivers during flood
periods) can build up to produce good quality soils
•Parent Material: includes the structure and mineral
composition of the original rock weathered to form the soil
•Time: the length of time elapsed while the soil is being
formed is important in characterising soils. Young soils will
reflect the characteristics of the parent material, whereas
older rocks will develop their own characteristics under
other influences.

36. Soil Layers
O: Organic material at the surface
A Horizon: the topsoil; contains
some weathered material and
organic elements, is rich in
humus
B Horizon: contains weathered
parent and animal material and
some organic elements;
material leached from the A
Horizon maybe deposited
C Horizon: the subsoil (weathered
parent material)
D Horizon – the parent material