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Abrasion
When wind-borne particles, such as sand, strike rock surfaces, wearing them down over time.
Alluvial Fans
Fan-shaped deposits of sediment found at the base of slopes, formed by flash floods.
Buttes
Smaller, isolated versions of mesas, often described as mesas in miniature.
Deflation
When wind removes fine, loose particles from the surface, leaving behind larger, heavier materials.
Dunes
Mounds of sand shaped by wind patterns, varying in size and shape depending on wind direction, sand supply, and vegetation.
Mesas
Large, flat-topped landforms with steep sides, formed by the erosion of softer rock layers beneath a harder caprock.
Periglacial processes
Cold-climate processes, including freeze-thaw weathering, frost heave and solifluction, that shape exposed ground where freezing occurs seasonally or permanently, typically around or beyond glaciers rather than beneath moving ice.
Example
Permafrost
Ground that remains frozen for two or more consecutive years.
Pingo
Ice-cored hills that can reach up to 100 meters in height and 1,000 meters in width.
Plucking
The process where glaciers remove rocks from the ground.
Thermokarst
The irregular, depressed surfaces formed by the melting of permafrost.
Wadis
Dry riverbeds found in arid regions, formed by the powerful erosive force of seasonal floods.
Weathering
The breakdown of rocks into smaller particles. In deserts, two main types of weathering occur: physical and chemical.