Plains

Plain and their types

Plains are considered one of the major land forms on Earth. It consists of almost one third of the Worlds surface area. It present or exist in every continent of the World and have relatively flat surface. In Pakistan, one of the major plain is Indus Plain (lower Indus plain and Upper Indus plain). Some major plain are stretches across the Earth and formed a major vegetation land called Grassland. Grassland is an area of land where there is large amount of producers grows. It is also the area where most population of the World inhabited there.

In most part of Asia and Eastern Europe, some areas do not receive enough rain. So, there is no proper system of irrigation to grow grass and tall trees. These areas deprived of much grass Therefore these areas are called steppes. Similarly, deserts are also some kind of plains having dried temperature and minimum level of vegetation growth. Most common example of desert plain is Sahara, located in Africa. It consistent of a vast area of land that is dry and defrosted. If the plain is frozen then this kind of plain is termed as tundra. In Antarctica, we saw ice sheets spread all over the ground. Thus the plains located in Antarctica were commonly known as tundra.

Physical Features of Plains

• Plains consist of flat land that is stretched all over the area.

• Some plains have leveled land where most of the people built their houses but some plains consist of uneven land.

• Plains are considered the most fertile part of the Earth having maximum amount of vegetation growth.

• As they contain flat surface, people prefer to build their houses on such surface. Thus these are areas are more populated than others.

• These areas are highly suitable for infrastructure such as for construction and road building.

• Plains are most preferred areas for cultivation and play a most important role in Country economic growth.

Some major types of Plains:

Although there are various types of plains as usual but here we discuss some of them.

1-Erosional Plain:

These plains are formed due to the effects of some external forces on mountain, rivers and other geological features. These forces deformed the geological features from about millions of years and end up forming a plain.

For example

Some plains in France

2-Depositional Plains:

These types of plains formed due to high amount of deposition brought down by rivers and mountain. Thus the deposited material is converted into a plain. These areas are very rich in nutritional values as they contain minerals brought down by rivers and mountains. Thus there is also a vast amount of vegetation growth here.

For Example

A coastal plain

3-River Plains:

These plains are formed due to the actions of various rivers on the ground. Rivers deposit their sediments from millions of years on an area and turned into a plain.

For Example

Indus plain in Pakistan is an example of such type of plain. It expands over a vast area and stretches across some areas of Punjab to Sindh.

4-Glacial Plains:

These types of plains are formed due to the over accumulation of material form a glacier. When a glacier melts, some of its material starts flowing and deposit areas located near to the glacier.

5-Wind Plains:

In deserted areas wind is he only main factor that contributes towards the formations of wind plains. In these hot areas wind has greater speed which results in the soil erosion. Wind plains are areas having broad surface with little or no vegetation and their soil is eroded from everywhere. Life is almost impossible or very difficult in such hot wind areas.