[INTRO MUSIC]
Look outside your window for a sec, and you'll
probably see some buildings and streets,
maybe telephone poles,
hopefully some trees in there too.
A lot of the world that we live in has been shaped
by people, and hey, no complaints, because
I'm plenty comfortable right here.
But people aren't the only ones moving 
things around and shaping our world.
Wind, rain, and other elements do it all the time,
making shapes out of the Earth we call landforms.
So what are some kinds of landforms,
and how are they made?
First, remember that the Earth is
made of several spheres,
including the hydrosphere, biosphere, 
atmosphere and geosphere.
The solid part of the Earth, or geosphere, may
look pretty stable, but it's always changing.
Weathering and erosion by wind and water are constantly reshaping what our planet's surface
looks like, and even if it takes so long that 
we don't usually notice it, it's happening.
Let's check out our map to explore what 
kinds of landforms there are around the world.
Mountains are probably some of
the most well known landforms.
Basically, they're just really big hills with steep sides
that stretch way above the surface of the Earth.
Many mountains are formed when large plates, or pieces 
of the Earth's surface, collide and are forced upwards.
The low spaces in between? We call those valleys.
But if mountains don't 'peak' your
interest, how about plateaus?
Plateaus are also tall landforms, but unlike mountains, which tend to have the pointy tops we know as peaks,
plateaus have flat tops.
Plateaus come in lots of sizes.
If they're medium-sized, for example, they're called mesas, which is the Spanish word for table,
which is highly appropriate, since plateaus
kind of look flat and long -- like tables.
And if they're smallish, they're called buttes.
No matter what they're called, or what size they are, 
plateaus can form in lots of different ways.
Sometimes they're caused by the erosion, 
or wearing away of mountains,
like by water or really big pieces of ice.
Other plateaus are made by magma, which is 
really hot melted liquid Earth below the surface.
When magma swells up below the 
surface but can't break through,
it can push up a flat chunk of land,
 leaving that table like formation behind.
And speaking of magma, let's go to 
the Pacific Ocean on our map
for a good look at the most explosive landforms:
Volcanoes.
These landforms are found where the 
surface of the Earth is relatively thin.
When magma breaks through the surface, 
or erupts, that hot liquid rock gets a new name:
Lava.
And a new volcano is born.
Hot stuff coming through!
'Hot' is definitely a good term to
describe another kind of land form:
Deserts.
Deserts are landforms that lose more water to air than 
they get through rain, snow, or other kinds of moisture.
The world's largest desert is 
the Sahara in Northern Africa,
where daytime temperatures
can climb to a sweltering 55°C!
Just a wee bit out of my personal comfort zone, but then 
again so are the cold temperatures in Antarctica,
which is actually considered to be a desert too.
Penguins in the desert! Who knew it, right?
Time to set sail for two more kinds of landforms:
Islands and Deltas.
You'll find deltas at the mouth, or end,
of rivers where they meet the ocean.
Deltas are formed when dirt and other debris
 that are washed down the river accumulate,
or build up, to form a piece of land.
Islands, on the other hand, can 
form any number of ways.
They might come from the cooled 
lava of underwater volcanoes,
or from a whole lot of dirt sand in pieces of 
coral building up due to ocean currents.
Islands can even form by breaking 
off from a larger piece of land!
So they can form in lots of ways, but as long as it's surrounded on all sides by water, it's an island.
In our travels today, we took a look at 
lots of different kinds of landforms,
which are natural features of the Earth's surface.
Landforms can stretch high above the Earth's 
surface, like mountains, plateaus, or mesas,
be created in or by water like deltas 
and islands, or even be dry like deserts.
So remember these things the 
next time you step outside.
Underneath and beyond and all around 
the things that people have made,
there are landforms millions of years in the making.
[OUTRO MUSIC]
