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The most abundant silicate minerals on the Earth's surface include quartz, the feldspars, amphibole, mica, pyroxene, and olivine. [25] Common carbonate minerals include calcite (found in limestone), aragonite, and dolomite. [26] Elevation histogram of the surface of the Earth—approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is covered with water.
The remaining 30% is ground water, 1% surface water (covering only 2.8% of Earth's land) [200] and other small forms of fresh water deposits such as permafrost, water vapor in the atmosphere, biological binding, etc. [201] [202] In Earth's coldest regions, snow survives over the summer and changes into ice.
1913 saw the beginning of the International Map of the World initiative, which set out to map all of Earth's significant land areas at a scale of 1:1 million, on about one thousand sheets, each covering four degrees latitude by six or more degrees longitude. Excluding borders, each sheet was 44 cm high and (depending on latitude) up to 66 cm wide.
Global warming between 1.7 °C (3.1 °F) and 2.3 °C (4.1 °F) would likely make this melting inevitable. [6] However, 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) would still cause ice loss equivalent to 1.4 m (4 + 1 ⁄ 2 ft) of sea level rise, [23] and more ice will be lost if the temperatures exceed that level before declining. [6]
The Columbia Plateau province is enveloped by one of the world's largest accumulations of basalt. Over 500,000 km 2 (190,000 sq mi) of the Earth's surface is covered by it. The topography here is dominated by geologically young lava flows that inundated the countryside with amazing speed, all within the last 17 million years.
A landform is a natural or anthropogenic [1] [2] land feature on the solid surface of the Earth or other planetary body. Landforms together make up a given terrain , and their arrangement in the landscape is known as topography .
Topography globe featuring physical features of the Earth. A globe is a spherical model of Earth, of some other celestial body, or of the celestial sphere. Globes serve purposes similar to maps, but, unlike maps, they do not distort the surface that they portray except to scale it down. A model globe of Earth is called a terrestrial globe.
By definition (assuming that the entire surface can be classified as either "land" or "ocean"), the two hemispheres do not overlap. Determinations of the hemispheres vary slightly. One determination places the centre of the land hemisphere at 47°13′N 1°32′W / 47.217°N 1.533°W / 47.217; -1.533 (in the city of Nantes , France