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Earth science · Physical geography

Landscape Lab

Shape a landscape in a sand table, let rivers carve canyons and deltas, push a glacier through a valley, dissolve a cave, and see how Cappadocia's fairy chimneys formed.

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First lesson01 · Rock to rubble: weatheringSee all 25 lessons →

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The course

7 worlds · 25 lessons

World 1 · Shape the Land with Water

FREEWeathering, runoff, erosion, transport and floods
  1. 01Rock to rubble: weatheringHow solid rock breaks down where it sits · 10 min
  2. 02Water finds the way: rain on a slopeRunoff, streams and drainage basins · 10 min
  3. 03Pick up, carry, drop: erosion, transport and depositionHow speed and grain size decide what a river does · 11 min
  4. 04How much water? Discharge and floodsA one-line formula for river flow, and what floods really are · 11 min

World 2 · Canyons, Meanders and Deltas

PROFollow a river from the mountains to the sea
  1. 01Cutting down: gorges, waterfalls and canyonsThe steep upper course and the slow, deep cut · 11 minPRO
  2. 02Why rivers wiggle: meandersCut banks, point bars and oxbow lakes · 11 minPRO
  3. 03Floodplains and levees: the lower courseWhat a flood builds, and what a flood wall changes · 10 minPRO
  4. 04Building a delta: where rivers meet still waterSediment, waves, tides and shifting channels · 11 minPRO

World 3 · Glaciers Carve U-Valleys

PRORivers of ice, the valleys they leave and the sea level question
  1. 01How a glacier is born: snow to iceAccumulation, melting and the equilibrium line · 11 minPRO
  2. 02Plucking and scraping: glacial erosionHow slow ice reshapes solid rock · 10 minPRO
  3. 03V becomes U: features of glaciated landscapesA field guide to what ice carves and what it drops · 11 minPRO
  4. 04Which ice raises the sea? Floating ice versus land iceArchimedes, an ice cube and the ice sheets · 12 minPRO
  5. 05Reading what ice left behind: past glaciersErratics, moraines and the last ice age · 10 minPRO

World 4 · Caves, Stalactites and Stalagmites

PROHow water dissolves rock, then rebuilds it drop by drop
  1. 01Rock that dissolves: karst and limestoneWeak acid, strong results · 11 minPRO
  2. 02Drip by drip: stalactites, stalagmites and columnsRock that grows back, very slowly · 11 minPRO
  3. 03Caves as archives: speleothems and climateReading rainfall and time from a slice of stone · 10 minPRO

World 5 · Fairy Chimneys of Cappadocia

PROVolcanic tuff, hard caps and a landscape people carved into
  1. 01Ash that became rock: where the tuff came fromThe volcanic foundation of central Anatolia · 10 minPRO
  2. 02Hard hat, soft body: differential erosionWhy a tower stands where the cap protects it · 11 minPRO
  3. 03Living in the rock: people and the landscapeCarved rooms, a World Heritage Site and the cost of visiting · 10 minPRO

World 6 · Ice Cores: Reading Old Air

PROSnow layers, trapped bubbles and 800,000 years of data
  1. 01Layers of snow: drilling a coreHow a glacier becomes a library · 10 minPRO
  2. 02800,000 years of CO₂: the recordWhat the bubbles and the ice say, in numbers · 11 minPRO
  3. 03Why the ice ages come and go: Milankovitch cyclesThree slow wobbles of the Earth's orbit · 11 minPRO

World 7 · Landscape Detective

PRORead the clues and name the process
  1. 01River or glacier? Reading valleysCross-sections, floors, side valleys and the things left behind · 10 minPRO
  2. 02Water below ground: caves, sinkholes and springsRecognising karst from the surface · 10 minPRO
  3. 03Which process made this? Field-guide challengeFive mystery landscapes and the honest answer 'it depends' · 12 minPRO