Surely you have ever heard of the orography. It is the branch of physical geography that focuses on studying how mountains are formed and what characteristics they have. It is also known in one of the branches of geography with the name of orology. It is a science that attempts to thoroughly investigate and study how mountains, hills, and mountain ranges are formed and developed.
In this article you can find all the information you need about orography, what it studies and how important it is.
What is orography?
The orography embedded in a more specific way in the study of the geomorphology of a terrain. That is to say, is not limited to the characteristics that the surface may have, as is the case with topography. For example, you can study the formation of a mountain range or a group of mountain ranges. These formations are known as orogeny.
This branch of physical geography is in charge of classifying the types of relief or elevations that we find throughout the earth's crust. Not only the types of reliefs, but also the shapes that the surface can acquire, taking into account all the external factors that influence it. The studies focus on describing all the types of mountains that we can observe. Each mountain has had a different process in its formation and evolution throughout history. These studies and descriptions are made using cartographic representations. Thanks to these representations, better known as maps, it is possible to visualize and learn more about the type of relief found in a certain region.
Types of orography
The orography has different ways of characterizing a relief. We find different forms such as mountains, volcanoes, plains and valleys. Also, depending on the area where we are with respect to the sea, we can observe different geomorphologies such as cliffs and beaches. The orography also serves to determine some water courses, the shape they have (such as meanders) and the morphology of their mouth.
Regarding the importance of the study of orography, we can observe that they are of vital importance both for geographers and for the governments of the countries, since they serve to carry out the different approaches to infrastructure and road works. All the characteristics of the land are studied with the aim of being able to construct buildings and communication routes for expansion and urbanization. It also has an important role in the world of agriculture and mining. This is because you can perform important analyzes on the characteristics of the soil and subsoil of the place to know what type of crops can be planted. Besides, also we can know if there are underground water reserves thanks to the maps produced with the knowledge of orography.
All this becomes basic if we want to make proper use and extraction of natural resources. In addition, although it seems that it is not linked to it, the orography has an impact on the climate and environmental changes that occur in different places. For example, the climate that may exist in a mountain area (both in terms of rainfall and temperature and wind regime) is not the same as the climate that may exist in a coastal area. The movements of the air masses are influenced by this orography that is generating a condensation process depending on the height of the mountains. One aspect that is quite relevant is the height of the peaks of the different mountains. These peaks are responsible for accelerating the speed of the winds.
To summarize all this we can say that The orography influences the amount of precipitation, cloud cover and winds that can be recorded in a given area.
Orography of Europe
We can say that Europe is one of the continents that presents one of the largest ranges of orography. This means that there are different types of relief throughout the entire continent. Among the orography that we can find we have:
- The Alps: It is known as the most important orographic system in all of Western Europe
- Apennines: this mountainous system in which the Vesuvius volcano is located, the Etna volcano, on the island of Sicily.
- In Europe we also find the Dynamic Mountains and Scandinavian Mountains.
- The natural border between Europe and Asia is determined by the Ural mountains.
- Caucasus Mountains. These mountains lie between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea
- Throughout the entire European territory we have large volcanoes, plateaus and plains. There are also numerous valleys, river structures and a greater amount of human concentration. Among the most important plains we have the Po plain, the North European plain and the Russian plain.
Orography of Spain
Our country is characterized by having a fairly high and mountainous relief. The systems are quite numerous and cover half of the entire territory. This type of relief conditions the climate we have in Spain. Among the most important orography we have in our country we find:
- The Pyrenees. This mountain range systems that separate the Iberian Peninsula from France. It has a great wealth of flora and fauna and a climate in accordance with the relief.
- Betic Systems. They are the highest mountain ranges.
- The Cantabric mountain rangea.
- Sierra Morena
- Toledo Mountains
- Eastern Iberian system
- Archipelagos, the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands
Thanks to the fact that Spain is bathed by three different bodies of water, we find a wide variety of beaches, cliffs and rivers. The Iberian Peninsula is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the Cantabrian Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.
As you can see, the orography of a terrain is quite important if we want to know the relief. In addition, many of the climatic characteristics of an area are well determined by its orography. I hope that with this information you can learn more about the orography.