PRARIE – A wide area of
level or rolling, wet, tall
grassland.
ISTHMUS – A narrow
strip of land between
two seas or oceans that
connects two larger
land areas.
WATERFALL – A natural
stream of water
descending from a
steep height.
DESSERT – A dry, barren
region that receives
little or no
precipitation.
GEYSER – A natural hot
spring that
intermittently ejects
steam and hot water
into the air.
CAVE – An underground
hollow with an opening
at the surface.
RIVER – A stream of
water of considerable
volume.
CLIFF – A steep, high
face of rock.
BAY – A body of water
partially enclosed by
land with a wide outlet
to the ocean.
GULF – An area of a sea
or ocean partially
enclosed by land; larger
than a bay.
CANAL – An artificial
waterway used for
irrigation or travel.
ARCHIPELAGO – An arcshaped chain of islands.
SEA – A body of
saltwater surrounded
almost entirely by land.
BUTTE – A tall, isolated
rocky hill or mountain
with a flat top and
steep sides.
CANYON – A deep
valley with high, steep
walls.
CAPE – A pointed piece
of land jetting into the
sea from the coastline
of a continent or large
island.
PENINSULA – A
landform surrounded
by water on three sides.
SWAMP – A lowland
region saturated by
water.
FJORD – A long, narrow
coastal valley between
tall, rocky cliffs, gouged
out by a glacier and
flooded by the sea.
FOREST – A large area
thickly covered with
trees.
DUNES – A ridge or hill
of sand blown or drifted
by the wind in deserts
or on beaches.
LAGOON – A shallow
pool of water at the
center of an atoll.
MOUNTAIN – A rugged
mass of rock that rises
above the surrounding
landscape with steep
slopes and a peak or
summit.
CORAL REEF – A mound
or ridge or coral polyps
and their hard
limestone remains,
combined with sand
and minerals.
TUNDRA – Vast treeless
plains with permafrost
and small, low plants.
BADLANDS – A barren
area with eroded
ridges, peaks and
mesas, and sparse
vegetation.
CONTINENT – A large,
principal land mass.
BEACH – A sandy,
pebbly, or rocky shore
of a body of water.
GLACIER – A large body
of ice that moves across
the earth’s surface.
MESA – Flattop,
elevated landform.
MARSH – A wetlands
HILL – A natural land
elevation smaller than a
mountain.
area always or sometimes
covered with shallow
water whose main types
of plants are softstemmed reeds, sedges,
and grasses
ISLAND – A piece of
land, smaller than a
continent, completely
surrounded by water.
VALLEY – An elongated
lowland between
mountain ranges or
hills; often has a river or
stream running along
the bottom.
PLAIN – A large area of
relatively flat or gently
rolling land.
CRATER – A bowlshaped depression in
the earth or the funnelshaped opening of a
volcano.
DELTA – A triangular
VOLCANO – An opening
plain formed by the
gravel, silt, sand, and clay
deposited at a river’s
mouth where it slows to
meet another body of
water.
in the earth’s crust
through which red-hot,
melted rock, or magma
rises to the surface from
deep inside the earth and
spills out as lava.
ATOLL – A ring-shaped
island formed by coral
buildup on the rim of an
underwater volcano.
JUNGLE – Land covered
by dense tropical
vegetation.
ICEBERG – A mass of
floating ice that has
broken away from a
glacier.
SOUND – A long,
relatively wide body of
water, larger than a
channel or strait, that
often connects larger
bodies of water.
RAINFOREST – A dense
tropical evergreen
forest with an annual
rainfall of at least 100
inches.
SAVANNA – An open
grassland with widely
spaced trees in a hot,
seasonally dry climate.
STRAIT – A relatively
narrow waterway
joining two larger
bodies of water.
PANHANDLE – A
narrow projection of a
larger territory, as in
Florida, Texas, and
Oklahoma.
CHANNEL – The
deepest part of a river
harbor.
OCEAN – The earth’s
largest continuous
stretches of saltwater.
LAKE – A large island
body of fresh or
saltwater.
PLATEAU - A very large,
flat area of land that
usually is higher than
the land around it, with
at least one steep slope.