Types of Terrestrial Plains
- Coastal plain, an area of low-lying land adjacent to a sea; the term is used especially where they contrast with hills, mountains or plateau further inland.
- Alluvial plains are formed by rivers, and may be one of these overlapping types:
- Flood plain, adjacent to a stream, river, lake or wetland that experiences occasional or periodic flooding.
- Alluvial plain, formed over a long period of time by a river depositing sediment on its floodplain or bed which becomes alluvial soil. The difference between a floodplain and an alluvial plain is that the floodplain represents the area experiencing flooding fairly regularly in the present or recently, whereas an alluvial plain includes areas where the floodplain is now and used to be, or areas which only experience flooding a few times a century.
- Scroll plain, a plain through which a river meanders with a very low gradient.
- Lacustrine plain, a plain that originally formed in a lacustrine environment, that is, as the bed of a lake.
- Lava plain, formed by sheets of flowing lava.
- Glacial plains are formed by the movement of glaciers under the force of gravity:
- Till plain, a plain of glacial till that forms when a sheet of ice becomes detached from the main body of a glacier and melts in place depositing the sediments it carries. Till plains are composed of unsorted material (till) of all sizes.
- Sandur (plural sandar), a glacial out-wash plain formed of sediments deposited by melt-water at the terminus of a glacier. Sandar consist mainly of stratified (layered and sorted) gravel and sand
- Mud plain Mud plains are usually found close to swamps and quicksand. Mud plains are usually found near the jungle or lakes.
- Grassland plain Grassland plains are formed by moss and algae, which look like grasslands.
- Old Believings It was believed that in England in the 14th century, that plains of any kind is where the dead wandered searching for their revenge. This was thought tho be true because so many people went missing when wandering the plains at night and were never heard of again.
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