Plain

This article is about the geographical feature. For other uses, see Plain (disambiguation).
Curry County, eastern New Mexico, on the North American Great Plains
Los llanos, an area of land with relatively high relief in Venezuela
Corn fields in the Wallachian Plain. The Walachian plain has thick deposits of fertile black earth, a type of loess
Part of the plain that surrounds Lightning Ridge in New South Wales, Australia

In geography, a plain is a flat area. Plains occur as lowlands and at the bottoms of valleys but also on plateaus or uplands at high elevations. In a valley, a plain is enclosed on two sides but in other cases a plain may be delineated by a complete or partial ring of hills, by mountains or cliffs. Where a geological region contains more than one plain, they may be connected by a pass (sometime termed a gap). Plains may have been formed from flowing lava, deposited by water, ice, wind, or formed by erosion by these agents from hills and mountains.

Plains in many areas are important for agriculture because where the soils were deposited as sediments they may be deep and fertile, and the flatness facilitates mechanization of crop production; or because they support grasslands which provide good grazing for livestock.

Types of plains

Depositional plains are grouped into the following:

See also

Look up plain in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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