Class 6 Landforms and Life: cheat sheet

CBSE Social Science. Mountains, plateaus, plains, deserts and islands, and how people adapt their homes, farming and work to each landform.

Key ideas

The three main landforms are mountains, plateaus (raised land with a fairly flat top) and plains (wide, flat, low land, often made by rivers).
Few people live in high mountains: slopes are steep, it is cold and there is little flat land.
Mountain farmers cut steps into slopes (terrace farming) to grow crops and stop the soil washing away.
Glaciers and snow store water and release it slowly into rivers, so mountains are called the water towers of the world.
Plains are crowded because their flat land and fertile river soil suit farming and building.
In deserts people store rainwater, use wells and oases, grow crops that need little water and keep camels.
The higher you go, the colder it gets: temperature falls about 6 °C for every 1,000 m of height.

Highest peak	Mount Everest, in the Himalayas (young fold mountains)
Plateaus of India	Deccan (black soil, cotton); Chota Nagpur (coal and iron ore)
Source of the Ganga	the Gangotri Glacier
Thar Desert	mostly in Rajasthan
Island / peninsula	water on all sides / water on three sides (southern India)
Height and temperature	about 6 °C cooler for every 1,000 m higher

Mixing up a plateau (raised, flat top) and a plain (low and flat).
Adding the temperature drop instead of taking it away when going up a mountain.
Calling a peninsula an island: an island has water on all sides, a peninsula on three.

It is 26 °C in a valley. The temperature falls about 6 °C for every 1,000 m of height. What will it be at 3,000 m above the valley?

Working: 18 °C cooler

Answer: 8 °C

Revise with this page, then practise: every Landforms and Life sheet in the app is new, with an answer key and working.

Coming soon for Android and iPhone.