Page 13 - Fundamentals of Geomorphology

AUTHOR’S PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION

Geomorphology has always been a favourite subject of mine. For the first twelve years of my life I lived in North
London, and I recall playing by urban rivers and in disused quarries. During the cricket season, Saturday and
Sunday afternoons would be spent exploring the landscape around the grounds where my father was playing cricket.
H. W. (‘Masher’) Martin, the head of geography and geology at Hertford Grammar School, whose ‘digressions’
during classes were tremendously educational, aroused my first formal interest in landforms. The sixth-form field-
trips to the Forest of Dean and the Lake District were unforgettable. While at University College London, I was
lucky enough to come under the tutelage of Eric H. Brown, Claudio Vita-Finzi, Andrew Warren, and Ron Cooke, to
whom I am indebted for a remarkable six years as an undergraduate and postgraduate. Since arriving at Manchester,
I have taught several courses with large geomorphological components but have seen myself very much as a physical
geographer with a dislike of disciplinary boundaries and the fashion for overspecialization. Nonetheless, I thought that
writing a new, student-friendly geomorphological text would pose an interesting challenge and, with Fundamentals
of Biogeography, make a useful accompaniment to my more academic works.
In writing Fundamentals of Geomorphology, I have tried to combine process geomorphology, which has dominated
the subject for the last several decades, with the less fashionable but fast-resurging historical geomorphology. Few
would question the astounding achievements of process studies, but plate-tectonics theory and a reliable calendar of
events have given historical studies a huge boost. I also feel that too many books get far too bogged down in process
equations: there is a grandeur in the diversity of physical forms found at the Earth’s surface and a wonderment
to be had in seeing them. So, while explaining geomorphic processes and not shying away from equations, I have
tried to capture the richness of landform types and the pleasure to be had in trying to understand how they form.
I also discuss the interactions between landforms, geomorphic processes, and humans, which, it seems to me, are an
important aspect of geomorphology today.
The book is quadripartite. Part I introduces landforms and landscapes, studying the nature of geomorphology
and outlining the geomorphic system. It then divides the material into three parts: structure, form and process, and
history. William Morris Davis established the logic of this scheme a century ago. The argument is that any landform
depends upon the structure of the rocks – including their composition and structural attitude – that it is formed in or
on, the processes acting upon it, and the time over which it has been evolving. Part II looks at tectonic and structural
landforms. Part II investigates process and form, with chapters on weathering and related landforms, karst landscapes,