Class 9 Social Science Chapter 2, Shaping of the Earth’s Surface, is the first geography chapter. It explains how forces inside and on the surface of the Earth keep changing it: plate tectonics from within, and weathering, erosion and the agents of gradation from above, ending with the disasters linked to landforms.
What Class 9 Social Science Chapter 2 Covers
Plate Tectonics describes the large pieces of crust moving slowly over the layer beneath and what their movement causes.
Weathering, Erosion and Agents of Gradation follow each agent and the landforms it makes: running water (waterfalls, meanders, deltas), waves and currents, glaciers, wind and underground water.
Landforms and Disasters covers landslides, avalanches, glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) and dust storms.
Earth’s forces in India: earthquakes were known in early times as bhūkampa, and Varāhamihira devoted a section of the Bṛihatsaṁhitā to the signs that come before them. India’s only mud volcano is at Baratang Island in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, where mud bubbles out under gas pressure. The Sindhu-Sarasvatī civilisation fought erosion with contouring, bunding, terracing, dams and canals, and rivers like the Ganga and Indus gave rise to early farming societies.
Exercises in Chapter 2
- Questions and activities at the end of the chapter, after a Before we move on… recap.
Read Class 9 Social Science Chapter 2 Online
More Chapters
- Previous: Chapter 1: Understanding Social Science
- Next: Chapter 3: Atmosphere and Climate
- All Social Science chapters and the other Class 9 books: Class 9 NCERT books 2026-27
- All Class 1 to 12 NCERT Textbooks: NCERT Books PDF (Class 1–12)
FAQ
What are the agents of gradation?
Running water, waves and currents, glaciers, wind and underground water, which wear down and build up the Earth’s surface.
What is a GLOF?
A glacial lake outburst flood: the sudden release of water from a lake held back by glacial ice or moraine. Chapter 2 discusses it with other landform disasters.
Where is India’s only mud volcano?
At Baratang Island in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.