All over the earth there are great flat places. The level or gently rolling land goes on for miles (kilometers). These flat parts of the earth are called plains. Most plains are lower than the land...
The lowest place in the world
> Canyon de Chelly, Arizona > Dead Sea, between Jordan and Israel If the highest part of the land is a mountaintop, where do you think the lowest place must be? That's right---in a valley. The...
Nature’s ditches
What parts of the earth's surface have floors and walls? Valleys. A valley is like a long ditch scooped out of the ground. The bottom of the ditch is called the floor. The sides are called valley...
When the earth shivers
"The mountains seemed to walk!" That is what a Chinese writer said about a terrible earthquake he saw. During the worst earthquakes, the ground shivers and shakes and rumbles. Whole sections of land...
Mountains of fire
A volcano is a special kind of mountain that actually builds itself! It is made of red-hot rock that pours up out of the earth amid earthquakes, explosions, and towering clouds of smoke and ash. ...
The highest place in the world
Where do you think the highest place in the world is? As you may have guessed, the highest place in the world is the top of a mountain. It is the top of Mount Everest, which stands between the...
The birth and death of a mountain range
Mountain ranges rise where a sea once met a shore. They start to form when a sea bottom along the edge of a continent begins to fill up with mud and sand. As the mud and sand grow thicker, the sea...
Giant rocks
Mountains are like great, gray giants. They are huge chunks of rock that have been pushed up out of the earth. Some mountains stand all alone, but most are connected together. Long chains of...
The moving continents
It may seem to you that the earth's crust is a single piece of rock. You may think this crust covers the outside of the earth just as an apple's skin covers an apple. But the earth's crust is...
Mountains, Valleys, and Plains
Mountains, Valleys, and Plains Mountains, Valleys, and Plains