Undulating slope
Also called: Irregular slope · Topic: Topographical Maps: Relief Representation and Interpretation · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 5 "Topographical Maps"
Meaning
An undulating slope is uneven ground that keeps going up and down in low waves, like a rolling surface. The gradient (steepness) changes again and again along the slope. On a topographical map, its contours are unevenly spaced: close together in some stretches and wide apart in others. Such ground often has small hills, low ridges and shallow hollows.
Example
Much of the Chota Nagpur Plateau in Jharkhand, around Ranchi, is undulating. Low hills and shallow valleys follow one another. On a toposheet this shows as patches of crowded contours mixed with patches of widely spaced ones.
Don't confuse with
- Concave or convex slope: the steepness of these changes only once, in one direction (gentle-then-steep or steep-then-gentle). An undulating slope changes back and forth many times.
Related concepts
- Contour line
- Contour interval
- Horizontal equivalent
- Gentle slope
- Steep slope
- Concave slope
- Convex slope