Buyers of land, sellers of land, land brokers, and land appraisers need to be familiar with landforms in order to make:informed decisions concerning the value and utility of land parcels. Following is a shaft glossary of landforms.

Alluvial fan - Fan-shaped deposit of sediment

Archipelago - Collection of islands

Badlands - Type of heavily erode,d terrain

Bay - Recessed, coastal body of ,water connected to an ocean or lake

Bluff - Tall, near vertical rock face,

Butte - Isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top

Canyon - Deep chasm between cliffs

Cape - Large headland extending into a body of water, usually the sea

Channel - Type of landform in which part of a body of water is confined to a relatively narrow but long region

Confluence - Meeting of two or Il)ore bodies of flowing water

Cove - Small sheltered bay or coastal inlet

Dry lake - Basin or depression that formerly contained a standing surface water body

Endorheic basin - Closed drainage basin that allows no outflow

Estuary - Partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water

Floodplain - Land adjacent to a river which is flooded during periods of high discharge

Gulch - Deep V-shaped valley formed by erosion

Inlet -Indentation of a shoreline

Islet - Very small island

Isthmus - Narrow strip of land connecting two larger land areas

Knoll - Small hill

Lagoon - Shallow body of water separated from a larger one by a narrow landform

Marsh - Low-lying and seasonally waterlogged land

Mesa - Elevated area of land with a flat top and sides

Mud volcano - Landform created' by the eruption of mud or slurries, water and gases

Oasis - Fertile area in a desert environment

Peninsula - Landform surrounded more then half but not entirely by water

Plateau - Highland area, usually of relatively flat terrain

Potrero - Long mesa that at one end slopes upward to higher terrain

Quarry - A place from which a geological material has been excavated from the ground

Ravine - Small valley, often due to stream erosion

River delta - Silt deposition landform at the mouth of a river

Salt marsh - Coastal ecosystem between land and open saltwater that is regularly flooded

Salt pan - Flat expanse of ground covered with salt and other minerals

Shoal - Natural submerged sandbank that rises from a body of water to near the surface

Sound - A long, relatively wide body of water, connecting two larger bodies of water

Strait - Naturally formed, narrow, typically navigable waterway that connects two larger bodies of water

Tide pool - Rocky pool on a seashore, separated from the sea at low tide, filled with seawater

 

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