Landforms and Climatic Phenomena: Definitions
Landforms and Climatic Phenomena
V CLIMAX: Optimal state of balance, relatively stable between vegetation and soil and the corresponding wildlife without human intervention. Final stage of total forest adaptation to their environment.
MAQUIS: The maquis is a dense, almost impenetrable shrubbery, sometimes reaching over two feet high. It originates from the degradation of forest soils and siliceous waterproof areas. In the maquis, there are junipers, mastic, isolated thickets of pine and oak, broom, arbutus, and high heather. It is a dense undergrowth, the product of the degradation of Mediterranean forests.
GARRIGA: Xeric shrubland with low-growing evergreens, found on limestone soils in the drier areas of Mediterranean climates. It consists of Kermes oak, wild carob, mastic, wild olive, rosemary, and thyme.
STEPPE: Plant formation of drought-tolerant plants, made up of small shrubs and characterized by discontinuity of the forest floor. It is proper to temperate latitudes. In Spain, it is located mainly in drier Mediterranean climate gradients and is formed by thorny shrubs, palms, thyme, and esparto grass.
WATERSHED: Geographical area where runoff waters converge into a main sewer, which is a river, lake, or sea.
GOTA FRIA: A cold air cell from the Jet Stream slips and falls at high speed, sometimes reaching 200 km/h. When this air descends on areas with high temperatures, it leads to heavy rainfall, at times catastrophic (as happens in the fall around the Mediterranean).
CONVECTIVE RAIN: Caused by the upward movement of warm, moist air or when warm air is placed over a cooler area.
JET STREAM: Powerful air currents that flow through the boundary of the troposphere. This flow of winds flows from west to east at an altitude of approximately 9000 meters, with speeds ranging between 150 and 600 km/h. It is located around 40 degrees of latitude but varies latitudinally along the seasons, being reflected in the surface Polar Front.
RELIEF IN COST: Asymmetrical relief formed by a front or scarp and a back slope that is softer. It is located on the edges of the river and is the result of differential erosion of sedimentary structures with layering of monocline resistant and soft layers weakly inclined.
JURASSIC STYLE: Characterized by an alternation of convex anticlinal folds and concave synclines, regular and soft, formed by plastic materials from the secondary and tertiary periods, such as the Basque mountains.
GERMANIC STYLE: Consists of a raised block (horst) and a sunken block (graben) resulting from the fracture of old rigid materials during the Paleozoic orogenesis during the Tertiary, such as the Central System.
SAXON STYLE: Combines both processes, fractures and folds, as a consequence of the alternation in the deposition of sedimentary material on the Paleozoic beds. The Paleozoic socket is fractured, and the sedimentary dressing folds, adapting to the underlying structure. It is characteristic of the Iberian Peninsula.
TABULAR RELIEF: Horizontal relief exhumed by the river network, located in the center of a sedimentary basin after the Alpine orogeny. It has not undergone any orogenic deformation and is formed by alternating layers that offer different resistance to erosion, capped by a harder layer. When the processes of river erosion dissect these structural platforms, residual forms originate away from the rest of similar materials: these are the witness hills. After the culmination of more resistant rocks is lost, the resulting relief is called an antecerro. The so-called Castilian depressions offer good examples.