Landforms Shaped by Water and Tectonic Forces

Landforms Shaped by Water Erosion

On hillsides or slopes, this model is given by wild waters or streams. Wild waters or streams occur on very steep slopes where there is little vegetation. The action of these waters gives modeled as fairy chimneys, gullies, or furrows on the earth.

Floods, in contrast, although there are also just as wild waters when it rains or snowmelt, have a channel that is divided into:

• Catchment area: Usually a lot of small grooves that carry the water.
• Drainage channel: Collects all water from the catchment area.
• Alluvial fan: Where materials are deposited away by the torrent.

Glacial Landforms

This model consists of three parts:

• Glacial cirque: A circle of ice and snow surrounded by mountains.
• The tongue: Where erosion occurs and results in valleys with a U-shape.
• Moraines: Where the glacier deposits sediments; occur on both sides of the tongue and at the end, where the ice melts. Sometimes this leads to collapse lakes called mountain lakes.

Coastal Landforms

It is by the sea geological action that erodes the land surface. Distinguished:

• Cliffs: The result of sea erosion. Sometimes these cliffs are eroded so that they give natural arches.
• Beaches: The repository of marine sediments.
• L: Refers to the accumulation of sand in front of the coast; sometimes, these deposits are supported by ropes or promontories.
• Arrows: Can isolate gaps in an ancient form of Gulf coast ridges.
• Raffles: Occur when an island is connected to the coast through an accumulation of sand.

Key Features of Iberian Geology

Hercynian Iberian Massif

Formed in the Variscan or Hercynian orogeny, developed in the Carboniferous and has an important role in our geological history. At first, it occupied much of the central and west of the peninsula, and this solid was the linchpin around which to structure the peninsular relief. Thanks to the Alpine orogeny, the old Hercynian Massif broke into blocks, some of which rose and others subsided, giving rise to different mountain units. It currently holds almost all the west of the peninsula from north to south, and its components: the Galician Massif, the western half of the Cantabrian Mountains, the Central System, and Sierra Morena.

Alpine Cordilleras

Alpine ridges are formed in the Tertiary, which is the key period for the geological history of the Peninsula, the Alpine Orogeny. Alpine mountain ranges are created from layers of sediment accumulated strong in trenches. These materials (accumulated sediments) responded to tectonic forces folding. Currently, different alpine mountains of Spain are (from north to south) Cantabrian Mountains, Pyrenees, Iberian, and Betic chains.

Tertiary Depressions

As its name suggests, these depressions were formed in the Tertiary, thanks to the Alpine Orogeny. Among the new Alpine condilleras had formed and the edges of the Hercynian massif, opened Tertiary depressions. Tertiary depressions formed, established in the Cenozoic Era, and now and still are the Ebro depression, depression of the Tagus, Duero depression, and depression of the Guadalquivir.