The relief of the Earth is unusually diverse. On its surface, deep canyons alternate with the highest mountain peaks, rocky massifs are adjacent to vast and flat plains. This article will discuss one of the forms of terrestrial relief. What is a hollow? How does she look? What types of hollows exist?
What is a hollow?
In geography, this term is used quite often. In particular, in geomorphology - a science that studies the relief of our planet. So what is a hollow?
The basins in geology and geography are called relatively large negative relief forms within the land or the bottom of the oceans. Most often they have rounded outlines.
According to the size of the basin can be very different. For example, the Afar basin in East Africa occupies a huge area, which amounts to tens of thousands of square kilometers. Other hollows are much more modest in size (such as, for example, the Nadbuzhansky hollow in Western Ukraine).
By origin, these landforms are tectonic, erosive, glacial, karst, aeolian, and even volcanic. According to the water regime, they can be sewage and drainless.
Basins are found both on land and at the bottom of the seas. What is the hollow in oceanography? These are huge depressions of the ocean floor, surrounded by a continental slope, underwater ridges or ramparts. The average depths of the underwater basins, as a rule, exceed the mark of 3,500 meters.
Basin of Lake Baikal: origin and interesting facts
Separately, geomorphologists also consider lake basins. This is the decline of the earth's surface, filled with water. Within Russia, the largest and most interesting is the lake basin of Lake Baikal. How and when did it arise?
The study of the deepest lake of the planet was seriously taken up in the XVIII century. The German scientist Peter Pallas was the first to hypothesize the origin of his basin. In his opinion, Baikal was formed as a result of a global natural disaster. After Pallas, many other scientists built their assumptions. And the closest to the truth came the Soviet geographer V.A. Obruchev.
In fact, the Baikal Basin is part of a huge rift zone, under which the earth's crust is constantly and abnormally strongly heated. As a result, the masses of rocks here deformed, spread and formed a chain of mountain ranges that now surround the lake from all sides.
An interesting fact: modern scientists have established that the shores of Lake Baikal are moved away from each other by almost 2 centimeters per year. Periodically, earthquakes are recorded in this region. All this means that the formation of the basin of Lake Baikal continues to this day.
Now you know what the hollow is and how it looks. This is a negative form of terrestrial relief that can occur both on land and at the bottom of the oceans and seas.