What term describes how the Earth's crust is distributed into its major surface features?

The term that describes how the Earth's crust is distributed into its major surface features is "topography." Topography refers to the arrangement of the natural and artificial physical features of an area. It encompasses the elevation, terrain relief, and layout of landforms such as mountains, valleys, plains, and plateaus, essentially giving a detailed description of the surface features of the Earth in relation to its hills and valleys.

Understanding topography is essential in physical geography because it influences various ecological and human factors. For instance, topography affects climate patterns, water drainage, and human settlement patterns. It directly impacts how people use land, where they build infrastructure, and how they manage natural resources.

In contrast, geology focuses more on the solid Earth and the processes that form and change the rocks and minerals that make up the Earth's crust, while bathymetry deals with the underwater features of the sea floor. Tectonics, on the other hand, is concerned with the movement and interactions of the Earth's lithospheric plates but does not directly describe the surface features themselves. Thus, topography is the precise term that captures the distribution of the Earth's major surface features.