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A geographical feature category is any type of natural feature on the earth. These can be very general (e.g. mountain) or more specific (e.g. shield volcano).
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416 Geographical feature category topics matching:
Filter this Collection| x name | x image | x Features | x Subcategories | x Subcategory of | x article |
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| x Cave |
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Gondolin Cave | Ice cave |
A cave or cavern is a natural underground space large enough for a human to enter. The term applies to natural cavities some part of which is in total darkness. The word cave also refers to smaller spaces like rock shelters, sea caves, and grottos....
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| Fingal's Cave | Lava tube | ||||
| Smoo Cave | Glacier cave | ||||
| Gorham's Cave | Anchihaline cave | ||||
| Badanj Cave | Sea cave | ||||
| more ▼ | more ▼ | ||||
| x Lava tube |
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Cave |
Lava tubes are natural conduits through which lava travels beneath the surface of a lava flow, expelled by a volcano during an eruption. They can be actively draining lava from a source, or can be extinct, meaning the lava flow has ceased and the...
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| x Ice cave |
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Cave |
The term ice cave refers to any type of natural cave (most commonly lava tubes or limestone caves) that contains significant amounts of perennial (year-round) ice. At least a portion of the cave must have a temperature below 0 °C (32 °F) all year...
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| x Glacier cave |
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Cave |
A glacier cave is a cave formed within the ice of a glacier. Glacier caves are often called ice caves, but this term is properly used to describe bedrock caves that contain year-round ice.
Most glacier caves are started by water running through or...
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| x Anchihaline cave | Cave |
Anchialine caves are caves, usually coastal, containing a mixture of freshwater and saline water (usually seawater). They occur in many parts of the world, and often contain highly specialised and endemic faunas.
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| x Sea cave |
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Fingal's Cave | Cave |
A sea cave, also known as a littoral cave, is a type of cave formed primarily by the wave action of the sea. The primary process involved is erosion. Sea caves are found throughout the world, actively forming along present coastlines and as relict...
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| Smoo Cave | |||||
| Blue Grotto | |||||
| Nereo Cave | |||||
| Gorham's Cave | |||||
| more ▼ | |||||
| x Pit Cave | Cave |
A pit cave, or vertical cave — or often simply called a pit (in the US) or pot (in the UK) — is a type of natural cave which contains one or more significant vertical shafts rather than being predominantly a conventional horizontal cave passage. Pit...
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| x Archipelago |
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Canadian Arctic Archipelago |
An archipelago ( /ɑrkɨˈpɛləɡoʊ/ ark-i-PEL-ə-goh), sometimes called an island group, is a chain or cluster of islands. The word archipelago is derived from the Greek ἄρχι- – arkhi- ("chief") and πέλαγος – pélagos ("sea") through the Italian...
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| Sulu Archipelago | |||||
| Bismarck Archipelago | |||||
| Malay Archipelago | |||||
| Louisiade Archipelago | |||||
| more ▼ | |||||
| x Caldera |
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Hypsographic |
A caldera is a cauldron-like volcanic feature usually formed by the collapse of land following a volcanic eruption. They are sometimes confused with volcanic craters. The word comes from Spanish caldera, and this from Latin CALDARIA, meaning ...
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| x Dune |
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Hypsographic |
In physical geography, a dune is a hill of sand built either by wind or water flow. Dunes occur in different forms and sizes, formed by interaction with the flow of air or water. Most kinds of dunes are longer on the windward side where the sand is...
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| x Glacier |
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Gornergletscher | Hydrographic |
A glacier (UK /ˈɡlæsiə/ GLASS-ee-ər or US /ˈɡleɪʃər/ GLAY-shər) is a large persistent body of ice that forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation (melting and sublimation) over many years, often centuries. At least 0.1 km² in area...
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| Mer de Glace | |||||
| Aletsch Glacier | |||||
| Unteraar Glacier | |||||
| Aar Glaciers | |||||
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| x Island |
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Isla Martín García | Artificial island | Hypsographic |
An island /ˈaɪlənd/ or isle /ˈaɪl/ is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or an island in a lake may be...
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| Porquerolles | Mangrove island | ||||
| Palm Jumeirah | Tied island | ||||
| Van Don Island | Section of island | ||||
| Yas Island | Cay | ||||
| more ▼ | more ▼ | ||||
| x Lake |
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Lake Van | Crater lake | Hydrographic |
A lake is a body of relatively still fresh or salt water of considerable size, localized in a basin, that is surrounded by land apart from a river, stream, or other form of moving water that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes are inland and not...
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| Lake Sevan | Intermittent lake | ||||
| Windermere | Salt lake | ||||
| Lake Tahoe | Intermittent salt lake | ||||
| Lake Titicaca | Oxbow lake | ||||
| more ▼ | more ▼ | ||||
| x Loch |
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Lochan na Gaire |
Loch ( /ˈlɒx/ or /ˈlɒk/) is the Irish and Scottish Gaelic (cognate with the now obsolete Welsh word for lake, llwch) word for a lake or a sea inlet. It has been anglicised as lough, although this is pronounced the same way as loch. Some lochs could...
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| Holy Loch | |||||
| Gare Loch | |||||
| Campbeltown Loch | |||||
| Castle Semple Loch | |||||
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| x Oasis |
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Hydrographic |
In geography, an oasis (plural: oases or oasi) or cienega (Southwestern United States) is an isolated area of vegetation in a desert, typically surrounding a spring or similar water source. Oases also provide habitat for animals and even humans if...
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| x Ocean |
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Arctic Ocean | Hydrographic |
An ocean (from Greek Ὠκεανὸς—"okeanos"—, Oceanus) is a body of saline water that composes a large part of a planet's hydrosphere. In the context of Earth, it also refers to major divisions of the planet's World Ocean, such as the Atlantic Ocean. The...
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| Atlantic Ocean | |||||
| Southern Ocean | |||||
| Pacific Ocean | |||||
| Indian Ocean | |||||
| x Peninsula |
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Inishowen | Section of peninsula | Hypsographic |
A peninsula (Latin: paenīnsula, "paene-": almost + "īnsula": island; also called a byland or biland) is a piece of land that is bordered by water on three sides but connected to mainland. In many Germanic and Celtic languages and also in Baltic,...
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| Whittle Peninsula | |||||
| San Francisco Peninsula | |||||
| Shawmut Peninsula | |||||
| Mare Island | |||||
| more ▼ | |||||
| x Plain |
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Nullarbor Plain | Section of plain | Hypsographic |
In geography, a plain is land with relatively low relief, that is flat or gently rolling. Prairies and steppes are types of plains, and the archetype for a plain is often thought of as a grassland, but plains in their natural state may also be...
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| x River |
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Cuarto River | Entrenched river |
A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also...
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| Tagus | Braided river | ||||
| Dora Riparia | |||||
| Ganges River | |||||
| Mosset Burn | |||||
| more ▼ | |||||
| x Sea |
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Persian Gulf | Hydrographic |
A sea generally refers to a large body of salt water, but the term is used in other contexts as well. Most commonly, it means a large expanse of saline water connected with an ocean, and is commonly used as a synonym for ocean. It is also used...
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| North Sea | |||||
| Mediterranean Sea | |||||
| Aegean Sea | |||||
| Adriatic Sea | |||||
| more ▼ | |||||
| x Tor |
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Fox Tor |
A tor is a large, free-standing residual mass (rock outcrop) that rises abruptly from the surrounding smooth and gentle slopes of a rounded hill summit or ridge crest. In the South West of England, where the term originated, it is also a word used...
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| Cox Tor | |||||
| Bowerman's Nose | |||||
| Rippon Tor | |||||
| Belstone Tor | |||||
| more ▼ | |||||
| x Valley |
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Ablation Valley | Section of valley | Hypsographic |
In geology, a valley or dale is a depression with predominant extent in one direction. A very deep river valley may be called a canyon or gorge.
The terms U-shaped and V-shaped are descriptive terms of geography to characterize the form of valleys....
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| Abus Valley | Hanging valley | ||||
| Adelie Valley | |||||
| Alatna Valley | |||||
| Allegro Valley | |||||
| more ▼ | |||||
| x Volcano |
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Bláhnjúkur | Extinct volcano | Hypsographic |
A volcano is an opening, or rupture, in a planet's surface or crust, which allows hot magma, volcanic ash and gases to escape from below the surface.
Volcanoes are generally found where tectonic plates are diverging or converging. A mid-oceanic...
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| Mount Gilbert | Complex volcano | ||||
| Mount Banahaw | |||||
| Eyjafjallajökull | |||||
| Otake | |||||
| more ▼ | |||||
| x Mountain |
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Grauspitz | Hypsographic |
A mountain is a large landform that stretches above the surrounding land in a limited area usually in the form of a peak. A mountain is generally steeper than a hill. The adjective montane is used to describe mountainous areas and things associated...
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| Estes Cone | |||||
| Mount Kirkpatrick Formation | |||||
| Mount Wuyi | |||||
| x Beach |
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Cancún Beach | Section of beach | Hypsographic |
A beach is a landform along the shoreline of an ocean, sea, lake or river. It usually consists of loose particles which are often composed of rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles or cobblestones. The particles comprising the beach are...
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| Praia da Adraga | Beach ridge | ||||
| Anse Source d'Argent | Raised beach | ||||
| Anse Réunion | |||||
| Beau Vallon | |||||
| more ▼ | |||||
| x Fjord |
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Roskilde Fjord | Hydrographic |
Geologically, a fjord (/ˈfjɔərd/ or /ˈfiːɔərd/; also spelt fiord) is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created in a valley carved by glacial activity. The word comes to English from Norwegian, but related words are used in several...
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| Jørgen Brønlund Fjord | |||||
| Sea Leopard Fjord | |||||
| Ikerasak Fjord | |||||
| Sunset Fjord | |||||
| more ▼ | |||||
| x Drumlin |
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Spring Hill |
A drumlin, from the Irish word droimnín ("little ridge"), first recorded in 1833, is an elongated hill in the shape of an inverted spoon or half-buried egg formed by glacial ice acting on underlying unconsolidated till or ground moraine.
Drumlins...
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| x Atoll |
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Mermaid reef | Hypsographic |
An atoll ( /ˈætɒl/ or /æˈtɒl/) is a coral island (or islands) that encircles a lagoon partially or completely.
The word atoll comes from the Dhivehi (an Indo-Aryan language spoken on the Maldive Islands) word atholhu (Dhivehi: އަތޮޅު, [ˈət̪ɔɭu])....
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| Clarke reef | |||||
| Imperieuse reef | |||||
| Rocas Atoll | |||||
| North Atoll | |||||
| more ▼ | |||||
| x Steppe |
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In physical geography, steppe (from Russian степь, "steppe," further derivation unknown) is an ecoregion, in the montane grasslands and shrublands and temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biomes, characterized by grassland plains without...
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| x Strait |
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Dardanelles | Hydrographic |
A strait or straits is a narrow, typically navigable channel of water that connects two larger, navigable bodies of water. It most commonly refers to a channel of water that lies between two land masses, but it may also refer to a navigable channel...
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| Deception Pass | |||||
| Kattegat | |||||
| Mozambique Channel | |||||
| Strait of Gibraltar | |||||
| more ▼ | |||||
| x Prairie |
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Prairies (UK: /ˈprɛər.i/, US: /ˈprɛr.i/) are considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the...
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| x Waterfall |
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Tortum Waterfall | Section of waterfall | Hydrographic |
A waterfall is a place where water flows over a vertical drop in the course of a stream or river. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf.
Waterfalls are commonly formed when a river is young. At...
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| Eas Mòr, Kames River | Coastal waterfall | ||||
| Great Falls | |||||
| Falls of Monzie | |||||
| x Floodplain |
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A floodplain, or flood plain, is a flat or nearly flat land adjacent a stream or river that stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls and experiences flooding during periods of high discharge. It includes the...
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| x Stream |
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Olalla Creek | Anabranch | Hydrographic |
A stream is a body of water with a current, confined within a bed and stream banks. Depending on its locale or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to as a branch, brook, beck, burn, creek, "crick", gill (occasionally ghyll), kill, lick...
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| Counter's Creek | Stream bend | ||||
| Canalized stream | |||||
| Distributary | |||||
| Headwaters | |||||
| more ▼ | |||||
| x Estuary |
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Estuary of Bilbao | Hydrographic |
An estuary is a partly enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea.
Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and ocean environments and are subject...
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| Kingsbridge Estuary | |||||
| Dyfi Estuary Mudflats | |||||
| Jade estuary | |||||
| Taz Estuary | |||||
| more ▼ | |||||
| x Canyon |
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Hells Canyon | Hypsographic |
A canyon (occasionally spelled cañon) or gorge is a deep ravine between cliffs often carved from the landscape by a river. Rivers have a natural tendency to reach a baseline elevation, which is the same elevation as the body of water it will...
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| Yarlung Tsangpo Canyon | |||||
| Snake River Canyon | |||||
| Jenkins Canyon | |||||
| Demer Canyon | |||||
| more ▼ | |||||
| x Natural arch |
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A natural arch or natural bridge is a natural geological formation where a rock arch forms, with an opening underneath. Most natural arches form as a narrow ridge, walled by cliffs, become narrower from erosion, with a softer rock stratum under the...
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| x Swamp |
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Bear Swamp, New Jersey | Mangrove swamp | Hydrographic |
A swamp is a wetland that is forested. Many swamps occur along large rivers, where they are critically dependent upon natural water level fluctuations. Other swamps occur on the shores of large lakes. Some swamps have hammocks, or dry-land...
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| Atchafalaya Basin | |||||
| Honey Island Swamp | |||||
| Coochie Brake | |||||
| Lake Martin swamp | |||||
| more ▼ | |||||
| x Wetland |
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Everglades | Hydrographic |
A wetland is a land area that is saturated with water, either permanently or seasonally, such that it takes on characteristics that distinguish it as a distinct ecosystem. The primary factor that distinguishes wetlands is the characteristic...
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| Burns Bog | |||||
| Birds Mill Swamp | |||||
| Kanjli Wetland | |||||
| Ropar Wetland | |||||
| more ▼ | |||||
| x Fen |
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A fen is one of the four main types of wetland, and is usually fed by mineral-rich surface water or groundwater. Fens are characterised by their water chemistry, which is neutral or alkaline, with relatively high dissolved mineral levels but few...
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| x Isthmus |
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Hypsographic |
An isthmus ( /ˈɪsθməs/ or /ˈɪsməs/; plural: isthmuses, isthmi; from Ancient Greek: ἰσθμός isthmos "neck") is a narrow strip of land connecting two larger land areas usually with waterforms on either side.
Canals are often built through isthmuses...
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| x Oceanic trench |
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Romanche Trench |
The oceanic trenches are hemispheric-scale long but narrow topographic depressions of the sea floor. They are also the deepest parts of the ocean floor.
Trenches define one of the most important natural boundaries on the Earth’s solid surface: the...
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| x Bog |
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Burns Bog | Hydrographic |
A bog is a wetland that accumulates peat, a deposit of dead plant material—often mosses, and in a majority of cases, Sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, quagmire and muskeg.
Bogs occur...
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| Serbonian Bog | |||||
| x Stratovolcano |
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Dzenzursky |
A stratovolcano, also known as a composite volcano, is a tall, conical volcano built up by many layers (strata) of hardened lava, tephra, pumice, and volcanic ash. Unlike shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes are characterized by a steep profile and...
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| x River delta |
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Paraná Delta | Hypsographic |
A delta is a landform that is formed at the mouth of a river, where that river flows into an ocean, sea, estuary, lake, or reservoir. Deltas are formed from the deposition of the sediment carried by the river as the flow leaves the mouth of the...
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| x Seamount |
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Hintsa Seamount | Undersea |
A seamount is a mountain rising from the ocean seafloor that does not reach to the water's surface (sea level), and thus is not an island. These are typically formed from extinct volcanoes, that rise abruptly and are usually found rising from the...
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| Andromeda Seamount | |||||
| x Marsh |
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Dyke Marsh | Salt marsh | Hydrographic |
A marsh is a type of wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species. It can normally be found at the edge of lakes and streams, and act as a transition between the aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. They are dominated by...
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| Topock Marsh | Brackish marsh | ||||
| Freshwater marsh | |||||
| Tidal marsh | |||||
| x Pond |
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Blue Hole | Salt evaporation pond | Hydrographic |
A pond is a body of standing water, either natural or man-made, that is usually smaller than a lake. They may arise naturally in floodplains as part of a river system, or they may be somewhat isolated depressions (examples include vernal pools and...
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| Davis Pond | Intermittent pond | ||||
| Davis Mill Pond | Intermittent salt pond | ||||
| Whites Pond | Fish pond | ||||
| Whites Pond | |||||
| more ▼ | |||||
| x Cliff |
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Hypsographic |
In geography and geology, a cliff is a significant vertical, or near vertical, rock exposure. Cliffs are formed as erosion landforms due to the processes of erosion and weathering that produce them. Cliffs are common on coasts, in mountainous areas,...
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| x Escarpment |
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Niagara Escarpment | Hypsographic |
An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that occurs from erosion or faulting and separates two relatively level areas of differing elevations.
Usually escarpment is used interchangeably with scarp (from the Italian scarpa, shoe). But some...
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| Illawarra escarpment | |||||
| Knobstone Escarpment | |||||
| Catskill Escarpment | |||||
| Helderberg Escarpment | |||||
| more ▼ | |||||
| x Grassland |
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Grasslands are areas where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae) and other herbaceous (non-woody) plants (forbs). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) families can also be found. Grasslands occur naturally on all continents...
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| x Temperate coniferous forests |
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Temperate coniferous forest is a terrestrial biome found in temperate regions of the world with warm summers and cool winters and adequate rainfall to sustain a forest. In most temperate coniferous forests, evergreen conifers predominate, while some...
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| x Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests |
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Mixed forests are a temperate and humid biome. The typical structure of these forests includes four layers. The uppermost layer is the canopy composed of tall mature trees ranging from 33 to 66 m (100 to 200 feet) high. Below the canopy is the three...
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| x Tropical and subtropical coniferous forests |
Tropical and subtropical coniferous forests are a forest biome. They are located in regions of semi-humid climate at tropical and subtropical latitudes. Most tropical and subtropical coniferous forest ecoregions are found in the Nearctic and...
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| x Pasture |
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Pasture (from the Latin pastus, past participle of pascere ”to feed”) is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep or swine. The...
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| x Ditch |
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Car Dyke | Drainage ditch | Hydrographic |
A ditch is usually defined as a small to moderate depression created to channel water.
In Anglo-Saxon, the word dïc already existed and was pronounced 'deek' in northern England and 'deetch' in the south. The origins of the word lie in digging a...
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| Dyke Ditch | Irrigation Ditch | ||||
| Ditch mouth | |||||
| x Islet |
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Sue Islet | Island |
An islet is a very small island.
As suggested by its origin as islette, an Old French diminutive of "isle", use of the term implies small size, but little attention is given to drawing an upper limit on its applicability.
There are thousands of...
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| Boundary Islet | |||||
| Bay Islet | |||||
| Chão Islet | |||||
| Abagaitu Islet | |||||
| more ▼ | |||||
| x Stack |
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The Needles |
A stack is a geological landform consisting of a steep and often vertical column or columns of rock in the sea near a coast, isolated by erosion. Stacks are formed through processes of coastal geomorphology, which are entirely natural. Time, wind,...
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| The Twelve Apostles, Victoria | |||||
| x Cove |
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Lulworth Cove | Hydrographic |
A cove is a small type of bay or coastal inlet. They usually have narrow, restricted entrances, are often circular or oval, and are often inside a larger bay. Small, narrow, sheltered bays, inlets, creeks, or recesses in a coast are often considered...
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| Tide Cove | |||||
| Three Fathoms Cove | |||||
| Cripp's Cove | |||||
| King Edward Cove | |||||
| more ▼ | |||||
| x Bar |
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Hypsographic |
A shoal, sandbar (or just bar in context), sandbank or gravelbar is a somewhat linear landform within or extending into a body of water, typically composed of sand, silt or small pebbles. A spit or sandspit is a type of shoal. Shoals are...
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