Region 11 Technical Note – Geomorphic Terms
1
Date: May 2008
Subject: Geomorphic terms
Purpose: Provide standard list of geomorphic terms to use in Region 11
Procedure: Use the following list of Landscape, Landform, Microfeature, and Anthropogenic Feature Terms
defined in the National Soil Survey Handbook (NSSH) Glossary (comprehensive alphabetical and subset lists
grouped by Geomorphic Process or other Groupings). These lists are the core of the Geomorphic Description
System (Schoeneberger and Wysocki, 2002).
A) LANDSCAPES - broad or unique groups or clusters of natural, spatially associated features.
drumlin field
dune field
glaciokarst
hills (singular = Landform)
ice-margin complex
karst
lake plain (also Landform)
outwash plain (also Landform)
river valley (also Landform)
till plain (also Landform)
B) LANDFORMS - discrete, natural, individual, earth-surface features mappable at common survey scales.
alluvial fan
alluvial flat
backswamp
bar
barchan dune
beach
beach ridge
beach terrace
blowout
bluff
bog
braided stream
broad interstream divide
channel
cliff
closed depression (also Micro.)
collapsed lake plain
crevasse filling
delta
depression
disintegration moraine
drainageway
drumlin
drumlinoid ridge
dune
end moraine
escarpment
esker
fen
flat
flood plain
flood-plain splay
flood-plain step
foredune
free face (also Geom. Comp. - Hills)
glacial drainage channel
glacial lake (water body)
glacial lake [relict]
ground moraine
head-of-outwash
hill
hillslope
ice-contact slope
ice-marginal steam
interdrumlin
interdune (also Microfeature)
interfluve (also Geom. Comp. - Hills)
island
kame
kame moraine
kame terrace
kettle
knob
knoll
lake (water body)
lakebed [relict]
lake plain (also Landscape)