The varied list of waterfalls mountains etc Of course. That’s a wonderfully broad and exciting topic. The natural world is filled with an incredible variety of these majestic features. Here is a varied list, categorized for clarity, with some famous and lesser-known examples.
Waterfalls
- Waterfalls are classified by their shape and how the water flows.
- Plunge: Water drops vertically, losing contact with the cliff face.
- Angel Falls (Venezuela): The world’s highest uninterrupted waterfall (979 m / 3,212 ft).
- Yosemite Falls (USA): The tallest in North America (739 m / 2,425 ft).
- Horsetail: Water maintains some contact with the bedrock as it descends.
- Niagara Falls (USA/Canada): Famous for its immense power and volume.
- Victoria Falls (Zambia/Zimbabwe): “The Smoke that Thunders,” one of the world’s largest sheets of falling water.
Tiered/Cascade: A series of waterfalls, one after another.
- Havasu Falls (USA): Stunning blue-green water cascading in the Grand Canyon.
- Kuang Si Falls (Laos): A multi-tiered cascade with stunning turquoise pools.
- Punchbowl: Water descends through a constricted opening and spreads out into a wide pool below.
- Dunn’s River Falls (Jamaica): A famous terraced punchbowl waterfall that visitors can climb.
Block: Water descends from a wide stream or river.
- Iguazu Falls (Argentina/Brazil): A massive system of 275 cascades stretching over 2.7 km.
Mountains
- Mountains are categorized by how they are formed (their geology).
- The Himalayas (Asia): Home to Mount Everest, the highest peak on Earth.
- The Alps (Europe): Iconic range spanning eight countries.
- Fault-Block Mountains: Formed when large blocks of crust are uplifted and tilted.
- Sierra Nevada (USA): Includes Mount Whitney.
- Grand Teton (USA): A dramatic, sharp peak rising from the valley floor.
- Dome Mountains: Formed by magma pushing up the overlying rock layers.
- Black Hills (USA): Home to Mount Rushmore.
- Volcanic Mountains: Formed by eruptions of lava and ash.
- Mount Fuji (Japan): A classic stratovolcano and cultural icon.
- Mauna Kea (Hawaii, USA): The tallest mountain on Earth when measured from its base on the seafloor.
- Mount Kilimanjaro (Tanzania): The highest mountain in Africa, a dormant volcano.
Other Majestic Landforms
- Canyons & Gorges: Deep ravines between cliffs, often carved by rivers.
- Grand Canyon (USA): Carved by the Colorado River, revealing billions of years of geological history.
- Tiger Leaping Gorge (China): One of the deepest and most dramatic river canyons in the world.
- Caves & Caverns: Natural underground spaces large enough for a human to enter.
- Son Doong Cave (Vietnam): The world’s largest cave by volume, with its own internal jungle and river.
- Mammoth Cave (USA): The world’s longest known cave system.
- Glaciers: Persistent bodies of dense ice that move under their own weight.
- Perito Moreno Glacier (Argentina): Known for its dramatic ice calving events.
- Jostedalsbreen (Norway): The largest glacier in continental Europe.
- Deserts: Arid landscapes with extreme temperatures.
- Sahara (Africa): The world’s largest hot desert.
- Atacama (South America): The driest non-polar desert in the world.
- Reefs: Underwater ecosystems made of coral polyps.
Volcanic Features:
- The varied list of waterfalls mountains etc Calderas: Massive craters formed by a volcano collapsing. (e.g., Crater Lake, USA)
- Geysers: Hot springs that periodically erupt. (e.g., Old Faithful, USA)
Waterfalls (Expanded Classifications & Examples)
- Fan: The water spreads out horizontally as it descends.
- Detian Falls (Vietnam/China border): A spectacular fan waterfall set amidst karst mountains.
- Segmented: The water flow is broken into two or more channels before descending over the cliff.
- Kaieteur Falls (Guyana): One of the most powerful waterfalls in the world, set in a remote rainforest.
- Frozen / Icefalls: Waterfalls that freeze solid in winter, often used for ice climbing.
- Fang Waterfall (Vail, Colorado, USA): A famous and challenging frozen waterfall for climbers.
- Nevada Fall (Yosemite, USA): Transforms into a massive ice formation in deep winter.
- Tide / Reversing Falls: Where tidal forces cause water to flow up a narrow inlet, sometimes creating a waterfall in reverse.
- Reversing Falls Rapids (Saint John, Canada): The Bay of Fundy’s extreme tides force the river to flow backwards.
Subterranean: Waterfalls located inside caves.
- Ruby Falls (Tennessee, USA): A stunning 145-foot underground waterfall.
- Mountains (Expanded Classifications & Examples)
Plateau Mountains (Erosional): Formed not by tectonic forces, but by erosion carving a plateau into mountains. - The Catskills (USA): Not true mountains, but a dissected plateau.
- The Twelve Apostles (Australia): Limestone stacks formed by erosion of the mainland cliff face.
Volcanic (Expanded Types):
- Shield Volcano: Built almost entirely of fluid lava flows, with a broad, gentle slope. (e.g., Mauna Loa, Hawaii)
- Stratovolcano (Composite): A conical volcano built by many layers of hardened lava, tephra, pumice, and ash. (e.g., Mount St. Helens, USA; Mount Vesuvius, Italy)
- Caldera: A large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber. (e.g., Santorini, Greece; Yellowstone Caldera, USA)
- Monadnock / Inselberg: An isolated rock hill, knob, ridge, or small mountain that rises abruptly from a gently sloping or virtually level surrounding plain.
- Uluru / Ayers Rock (Australia): A massive sandstone monolith sacred to Indigenous Australians.
- Sugarloaf Mountain (Brazil): A classic quartz and granite peak rising from the edge of Rio de Janeiro’s harbor.
Other Majestic Landforms (Expanded)
- Archipelagos & Atolls: A chain, cluster, or collection of islands, often formed by volcanic activity or coral growth.
- The Maldives: A nation comprised of 26 atoll rings, the epitome of tropical paradise.
- The Galápagos Islands (Ecuador): Volcanic islands famous for their unique endemic species.
- Deltas & Estuaries: Landforms formed at the mouth of a river where sediment is deposited.
- The Nile Delta (Egypt): One of the world’s largest river deltas, historically crucial for civilization.
- The Sundarbans (India/Bangladesh): The world’s largest mangrove forest, formed by the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta.
- Peninsulas & Capes: A piece of land almost surrounded by water or projecting out into a body of water.
- Cape of Good Hope (South Africa): A dramatic headland at the meeting point of two oceans.
- The Iberian Peninsula (Spain/Portugal): A major European peninsula.
- Fjords: Long, deep, narrow inlets of the sea with steep sides or cliffs, created by glacial erosion.
- Geirangerfjord (Norway): A UNESCO World Heritage site known for its stunning beauty and waterfalls.
- Milford Sound (New Zealand): Often called the “eighth wonder of the world,” technically a fjord.
- Badlands: A type of dry terrain where softer sedimentary rocks and clay-rich soils have been extensively eroded.
- The Badlands National Park (South Dakota, USA): Characterized by its striking layered rock formations, spires, and canyons.
- The varied list of waterfalls mountains etc Dinosaur Provincial Park (Canada): A rich fossil bed set in a stunning badlands landscape.
Lava Formations:
- Lava Tubes: Natural tunnels formed by flowing lava. (e.g., Kazumura Cave, Hawaii – the longest lava tube in the world)
- Columnar Basalt: Geometric columns formed by the cooling and cracking of lava. (e.g., Giant’s Causeway, Northern Ireland; Devil’s Postpile, USA)
Unique & Otherworldly Landscapes:
- Salt Flats: Vast, flat expanses of land covered with salt and other minerals. (e.g., Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia – the world’s largest, creating a giant mirror when wet)
- Tepuis (Tabletop Mountains): Isolated, flat-topped mountains found in South America. (e.g., Mount Roraima (Venezuela/Brazil/Guyana) – inspiration for Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Lost World”)
- Sinkholes: A depression or hole in the ground caused by the collapse of a surface layer.
- The Great Blue Hole (Belize): A giant marine sinkhole off the coast.
- Xiaozhai Tiankeng (China): The world’s deepest sinkhole, over 2,100 feet deep.