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A plain it is a certain portion of land that is characterized by presenting a notable plain or some slight undulations in the landscape. These are generally between plateaus. Plains are mostly found below 200 meters above sea level. However, there are also plains in highlands.
- See also: Examples of mountains, plateaus and plains
Importance of the plains
In general, the plains tend to be soils with great fertility, which is why they are used both for sowing grains and for grazing animals.
However, they are also widely used land for the layout of roads or railways so they are usually places where populations settle.
Examples of plains
- Eastern European Plain - Eroded plain
- Pampas region - Eroded plain
- Dōgo Plain (Japan) - Eroded plain
- Valencian coastal plain - Coastal plain
- Gulf Coastal Plain - Coastal plain
- Minas Basin, Nova Scotia (Canada) - Tidal plain
- Chongming Dongtan Nature Reserve (Shanghai) - Tidal plain
- Yellow Sea (Korea) - Tidal plain
- San Francisco Bay (USA) - Tidal plain
- Port of Tacoma (USA) - Tidal plain
- Cape Cod Bay (USA) - Tidal plain
- Wadden Sea (Netherlands, Germany and Denmark) - Tidal plain
- Southeast Coast of Iceland - Sandur glacial plain
- Alaskan and Canadian tundra in the northern hemisphere - Tundra plain
- Grasslands in Argentina, southern Africa, Australia and central Eurasia - Prairies
Types of plains
The types of plain can be classified according to the type of training that these have:
- Structural plains. They are surfaces that have not been greatly modified by the erosion of wind, water, glaciers, lava, or by violent changes in the climate.
- Erosional plains. They are plains that, as the word indicates, were eroded by water (wind or glaciers) during a certain period of time, forming a flat surface.
- Depositional plains. They are plains that were formed by the deposition of sediments that were carried away by the wind, waves, glaciers, etc.
Depending on the type of deposition, the plain can be:
- Lava plain. When the plain is formed by layers of volcanic lava.
- Coastal or littoral plain. Found on the coast of a sea.
- Tidal plain. These types of plains are formed when the soil has a large amount of clay or sandy sediments, which means that they are easily flooded soils. They are plains that are almost always humid.
- Glacial plains. They are generated by the movement of glaciers, thus forming this type of plains. In turn, they can be sub-divided into:
- Sandar or sandur. It is a type of glacial plain that is formed by small sediments. It generally draws a plain landscape with small ramifications of frozen rivers.
- Glacial plain of till. Which is formed by the accumulation of a large amount of glacial sediment.
- Abyssal plain. It is the plain that forms at the bottom of an ocean basin, before a decline or abyss.
On the other hand, another type of classification of the plains is also distinguished depending on the climate or vegetation that it has:
- Plain tundra. It is a plain without trees. It is covered with lichens and moss. It is found mostly in cold climates.
- Arid plain. They are plains where little rainfall occurs.
- Prairies. There is more vegetation than in the tundra or in the arid plain, but nevertheless the rains are still scarce.
