Physical features of india

Ramakrishna MissionVidyalaya

Viveknagar, Tripura (W)

SOCIAL SCIENCE POWERPOINT PRESENTATION

Covering syllabus of SA-II

By: Subhadeep

Chakraborty

Class=IX (A)

Guided by: Sri Uday

Pal(PGT)

Acknowledgement

• I am thankful to the school for providing me an opportunity to work on such a topic.

• I am also thankful to my Teacher, Sri UdayPaul for helping me in various ways to complete the Power point presentation.

A Ppt presentation on

PHYSICAL FEATURES OF

INDIA

INTRODUCTION• India is a vast country with varied landforms.

Our country has practically all major physicalfeatures of the earth i.e. mountains, plains,deserts, plateaus and islands. India is a largelandmass formed during different geologicalperiods which has influenced her relief. Besidesgeological formations, a number of processessuch as weathering, erosion and deposition havecreated and modified the relief its present form.

CAUSES OF PLATE MOVEMENT

• The movement of the plates resultsin the building up of stresses withinthe plates and the continental rocksabove, leading to folding, faultingand volcanic activity.

• Basically there are three types of plate boundaries:

1. Transform Boundary-In the event of twoplates coming together they may either collideand crumble, or one may slide under theother. At times, they may also movehorizontally past each other and formtransform boundary.

2. Convergent Boundary-• While some plates come towards each

other and form convergent boundary.

3.DIVERGENT BOUNDARY-

• Some plates move away from each other and form divergent boundary.

PLATE MOVEMENT

• The movement of these plates havechanged the position and size of thecontinents over millions of years. Suchmovements have also influenced theevolution of the present landform featuresrelief of India

• The oldest landmass, (the Peninsula part), was a part of theGondwana land. The Gondwanaland included India,Australia, South Africa and South America as one single landmass. The convectional currents split the crust into a numberof pieces, thus leading to the drifting of the Indo-Australianplate after being separated from the Gondwana land, towardsnorth. The northward drift resulted in the collision of theplate with the much larger Eurasian Plate. Due to thiscollision, the sedimentary rocks which were accumulated inthe geosynclines known as the Tethys were folded to form themountain system of western Asia and Himalaya. TheHimalayan uplift out of the Tethys sea and subsidence of thenorthern flank of the peninsular plateau resulted in theformation of a large basin. In due course of time thisdepression, gradually got filled with deposition of sedimentsby the rivers flowing from the mountains in the north and thepeninsular plateau in the south

(i)The Himalayan Mountains

(ii)The Northern Plains

(iii)The Peninsular Plateau

(iv)The Indian Desert

(v)The Coastal Plains

(vi)The Islands

The Himalayan Mountains• The Himalayas, geologically young and

structurally fold mountains stretch over thenorthern borders of India. These mountainranges run in a west-east direction from theIndus to the Brahmaputra. The Himalayasrepresent the loftiest and one of the most ruggedmountain barriers of the world. They form anarc, which covers a distance of about 2,400 Km.Their width varies from 400 Km in Kashmir to150 Km in Arunachal Pradesh. The altitudinalvariations are greater in the eastern half thanthose in the western half.

The Himalaya consists of three parallel ranges in its longitudinal

extent.

(i)The greater Himalayas

(ii) The lesser Himalayas

(iii) The Siwalik hill ranges

THE GREATER OR INNER HIMALAYA

It is the most continuous range consisting of the loftiestpeaks with an average height of 6,000 metres.

It contains all the prominent Himalayan peaks like –Mt. Everest (8,848m) in Nepal and Kanchenjunga(8,598)Sikkim in India.

The folds of Great Himalayas are asymmetrical innature.

The core of this part of Himalayas is composed ofgranite.

It is perennially snow bound, and a number of glaciersdescend from this range.

Himachal or lesser Himalaya

The ranges are mainly composed of highlycompressed and altered rocks.

The altitude varies between 3,700 and 4,500 metresand the average width is of 50 Km.

While the Pir Panjal range forms the longest and themost important range, the Dhaula Dhar and theMahabharata ranges are also prominent ones.

This range consists of the famous valley of Kashmir,the Kangra and Kullu Valley in Himachal Pradesh.This region is well known for its hill stations

THE SHIWALIKS

They extend over a width of 10-50 Km and have analtitude varying between 900 and 1100 metres.

These ranges are composed of unconsolidatedmaterial such as mud, silt and soft rocks and isprone to earthquakes and Landslides.

Some narrow valleys are found between Shiwaliksand Himachal. They are called duns. For exampleDehradun.

Some Highest Peaks of the

Himalayas

The Northern Plain

• The northern plain has been formed by the interplay ofthe three major river systems, namely– the Indus, theGanga and the Brahmaputra along with their tributaries.This plain is formed of alluvial soil. The deposition ofalluvium in a vast basin lying at the foothills of theHimalaya over millions of years, formed this fertileplain. It spreads over an area of 7 lakh sq. km. The plainbeing about 2400 Km long and 240 to 320 Km broad, is adensely populated physiographic division. With a richsoil cover combined with adequate water supply andfavourable climate it is agriculturally a very productivepart of India

The northern plains broadly is divided into 3

sections

• THE PUNJAB PLAIN

• THE GANGA PLAIN

• THE BRAHMAPUTRA PLAIN

• The Western Part of the northern plain is called the Punjab Plain.

• It is formed by Indus and its tributaries. The large part of this plain lies in Pakistan.

• The Indus and its tributaries :-the Ravi, the Chenab ,etc.

• The section of the plain is dominated by Doabs.

• It extends between Ghaggar and testa

river.

• It spreads over the states of North

India , Haryana, Delhi , Bihar, U.P. ,

Jharkhand ,and West Bengal,

particularly in Assam lies the

Brahmaputra

The Northern Plains can be divided

into 4 regions

• The narrow belt of about 8 to 16 km in width lyingparallel to the slopes of shiwalik are called bhabar.

• The streams and rivers re-emerge and create a wet,swampy and marshy region known as terai.

• The flood plains of the rivers and present a terracelike feature is known as bhangar.

• The soil in this region contains calcareous depositsknown as kankar.

The Peninsular Plateau

The Peninsular plateau is a tableland composed of the old crystalline, igneous and metamorphic

rocks. It was formed due to the breaking and drifting of the Gondwana land. The plateau has

broad and shallow valleys and rounded hills.

This plateau consists of two broad divisions are:

Central highlands

Deccan plateau

The Central Highlands

The Deccan Plateau

The Central Highlands

The part of peninsular plateau lying to the north of the narmada river covering a major area of the malwa plateau is known as the central highlands.

The extend of central highlands is from vindhya to aravalli hills.

The slope of central highlands is from south-west to north-east

The rivers chambal,sind,betwa and ken flow are according to the slope of the plateau.

The central highlands are wider in the west and are narrower in the east.

The chotanagpur plateau is the eastward extension of central highlands.

The chotanagpur plateau is drained from damodar river.

Deccan Plateau

The deccan plateau is a triangular landmass that lies to the south of the river narmada.

The deccan plateau is higher in the west and slopes gently eastwards.

It is separated by fault from the chotanagpur plateau.

The Western Ghats

Western Ghats lie parallel to the westerncoast. They are continuous and can be crossedthrough passes only. The Western Ghats arehigher than the Eastern Ghats. Their averageelevation is 900– 1600 metres

The Eastern Ghats

• The Eastern Ghats stretch from theMahanadi Valley to the Nigiris in the south.

The Eastern Ghats are discontinuous and

irregular and dissected by rivers draininginto he Bay of Bengal. Their averageelevation is 600 metres

The Indian Desert

The Indian desert lies towards the westernmargins of the Aravali Hills.

It is an undulating sandy plain covered withsand dunes.

This region receives very low rainfall below150 mm per year.

It has arid climate with low vegetation cover.

Streams appear during the rainy season.

The largest hot desert in the world, northern Africa's Sahara, reachestemperatures of up to 122 degrees Fahrenheit (50 degrees Celsius) duringthe day. covering 9 million square kilometers and 12 countries.

Hot deserts usually have a large diurnal and seasonal temperature range,with high daytime temperatures, and low nighttime temperatures (due toextremely low humidity).

In hot deserts the temperature in the daytime can reach 45°C/113°For higher in the summer, and dip to 0°C/32°F or lower at nighttime inthe winter.

Urban areas in deserts lack large (more than 14 °C/25 °F) dailytemperature variations, partially due to the urban heat island effect.

Many deserts are formed by rain shadows; mountains blocking the path ofprecipitation to the desert (on the lee side of the mountain).

PHOTOS OF HOT DESERT

• The common conceptions of deserts as dry and hot, there arecold deserts as well.

• Desert animals have adapted ways to help them keep cooland use less water.

• FOR EXAMPLE, camel can go for days without food andwater. Many desert animals are nocturnal, coming out onlywhen the brutal sun has descended to hunt. Some animals,like the desert tortoise in the southwestern United States,spend much of their time underground. Most desert birds arenomadic, crisscrossing the skies in search of food. Because oftheir very special adaptations, desert animals are extremelyvulnerable to introduced predators and changes to theirhabitat.

PHOTOS OF COLD DESERT

The Coastal Plains• The northern part of

the coast is called theKonkan (Mumbai –Goa), the centralstretch is called theKannad Plain whilethe southern stretchis referred to as theMalabar coast Theplain along the Bay ofBengal are wide andlevel

• In the northern part, it isreferred to as the NorthernCircar, while the southernpart is known as theCoromandal Coast. Largerivers such as theMahanadi, the Godavari,the Krishna and the Kaverihave formed extensivedelta on this coast. LakeChilika is an importantfeature along the easterncoast

THE ISLAND• An island is any piece of sub-continental land that is

surrounded by water. Very small islands such asemergent land features on atolls can becalled islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake maybe called an eyot , or holm. A grouping of geographicallyor geologically related islands is called an archipelago.

• An island may still be described as such despite thepresence of an artificial land bridge, forexample Singapore and its causeway, or thevarious Dutch delta islands, such as Ijssel monde. Someplaces may even retain "island" in their names forhistorical reasons after being connected to a largerlandmass by a wide land bridge, such as Coney Island.Conversely, when a piece of land is separated from themainland by a man-made canal, for example thePeloponnese by the Corinth Canal, it is generally notconsidered an island.

Lakshadweep Islands

Lakshadweep Islands group are lying close to theMalabar coast of Kerala.

This group of islands is composed of small coral islands.

Earlier they were known as Laccadive, Minicoy andAmindive. In 1973 these were named as Lakshadweep.

It covers small area of 32 sq km. Kavaratti island is theadministrative headquarters of Lakshadweep.

This island group has great diversity of flora and fauna.

The Pitli island, which is uninhabited, has a birdsanctuary.

Andaman and Nicobar Islands

They are bigger in size and are morenumerous and scattered.

The entire group of islands is divided into twobroad categories – The Andaman in the northand the Nicobar in the south.

It is believed that these islands are anelevated portion of submarine mountains.

These island groups are of great strategicimportance for the country.

Thank you

BY:SUBHADEEP CHAKRABORTY