Interfluve

The East Styrian Hills south of Herberstein

An interfluve is a narrow, elongated and plateau-like or ridge-like landform between two valleys.^[1][2] Whittow, more generally, defines an interfluve as an area of higher ground between two rivers in the same drainage system.^[3]

Formation

These landforms are created by earth flow ("solifluction"). They can also be former river terraces that are subsequently bisected by fluvial erosion. In cases where there is a deposit of younger sedimentary beds (loess, colluvium) the interfluves have a rounder and less rugged appearance. A consequence of interfluve formation is the so-called "interfluvial landscape."^[2]

Occurrence of interfluvial landscapes

• In South Burgenland and in the East Styrian Hills of Austria^[4]
• the majority of the natural region of the Iller-Lech Plateau in Bavarian Swabia and Upper Swabia (Baden-Württemberg) with the exception of the major river valleys of the Danube, Iller and Lech, the Donauried and the Federseeried as well as the Old Drift landscapes south of the natural region.

References

1. Ernst Neef (ed.): Riedel. In: Ders.: Das Gesicht der Erde (Taschenbuch der physischen Geographie). Verlag Harri Deutsch, Frankfurt/M, 1970, p. 774.
2. Leser, Hartmut, ed. (2005). Wörterbuch Allgemeine Geographie, 13th ed., dtv, Munich, p. 766, ISBN 978-3-423-03422-7.
3. Whittow, John (1984). Dictionary of Physical Geography. London: Penguin, 1984, p. 275. ISBN 0-14-051094-X.
4. Sicherung und Entwicklung der charakteristischen Riedellandschaft zwischen Dürrer Aurach und Aubach at www.land-oberoesterreich.gv.at. Retrieved 1 Jan 2015