meaning in the moving design

It started with a gulch.

We were on the East Coast Trail in Newfoundland, reading out directions from our trusty map: "Following the path, you will pass a small gulch, followed by two larger gulch-like gulches, which in turn precede a particularly steep gulch just left of the isthmus."

We... had no idea what a gulch was.

That got me thinking that all those other pretty things I was gushing over probably had names too, like not just "that rocky shelf thing with the cool guy around it..." So I've decided to dedicate an entire post to geography, or more specifically, geomorphology- that mysterious, creative force that shapes all that natural beauty around us. Time to get your learn on....

Let us begin.

A shoal is a bar of sand. A dune is a hill of sand. A dune field is a field of dunes. An erg is an extremely large dune field.

(Easy so far, eh? Take a deep breath...)

A valley is a dale. A gully is a small valley. A valley full of water is a vale. A wooded valley is a dell. A small valley surrounded by mountains is a hollow. A deep, narrow valley is a coombe or a glen. A deep valley carved by water is a gorge or a canyon. A wide and shallow valley carved by water is a strath. The opposite of a valley is a hill or knoll or mound.

A drumlin is a long whale-shaped hill formed by glacial activity. A crevasse is a fissure in a glacier. A moulin is a fissure (such as a crevasse) through which water enters into a glacier. A pingo is a mound of earth-covered ice. It is also a friend of Pingu the penguin.

A bay is a bay. A cove is a bay with a narrow mouth. A gulch is a rectangular-shaped cove with steep sides (at least in Newfoundland). A gulf is a large bay. So is a sound or a bight. A fjord is a narrow bay with steep sides, carved by glacial activity.

A river is a river. A stream is a small river. A bayou is a slow-moving river or stream, or a marshy lake. A bayou is also an anabrach, which means it will divert from the main waterway and rejoin it at a later point. An estuary is a brackish body of water that sits on the mouth of the ocean and also has freshwater (ie. rivers and streams) flowing into it. A delta is a landform composed of sediments that forms at the end of a river, before the river flows into a lake, an estuary, an ocean or another river.


A ventifact is a rock or stone that has been shaped or polished by wind. A yardang (which comes in mega-, mesa- and micro-) is a ridged ventifact shaped like the hull of a boat. An eolianite is any rock created by the wind through the compacting of sediments. A mesa is a mountain or hill with a large flat top and steep sides. A butte is like a mesa, but with a smaller flat top and really steep sides.

A stack is a tall column of rocks found near the coast. Stacks are remnants of headlands that were eroded away by the waves. A headland is also a cape. A hoodoo is also a column of rock, but is only found in the badlands. They're usually composed of sedimentary rock, but have a hard hat of volcanic rock that protects it from erosion. Badlands contain canyons, hoodoos and eroded sedimentary rock. Malpais (or "bad land") are like badlands but contain eroded volcanic rock. A scree or talus is a pile of rock fragments found at the base of a mountain or a cliff or a crag.

A ridge is an edge of a landmass. An arête is a super thin ridge of rock. A defile is a narrow pass between a hill or a mountain. A debouch is the wider space at the end of a defile. A monadnock or inselberg is a rocky hill, ridge or mountain found in a predominately flat area. A kame is a hill composed of sediments deposited by glaciers. A kettle is a water-filled valley containing sediments deposited by glaciers.

An alas is a valley with steep sides formed by the melting of permafrost. It may contain a lake. A lake is a lake.

An archipelago is a series of islands. An atoll is a circular reef with a lagoon in the middle, formed when a volcanic island sinks into the ocean. An isthmus is a narrow strip of land connecting two other pieces of land. A strait is a channel of water between two land masses.


And a horse is a horse, of course.




*Thank you Wikipedia and Wiki Commons