Page 20 - Fundamentals of Geomorphology

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WHAT IS GEOMORPHOLOGY?

Geomorphology is the study of landforms and the processes that create them. This chapter covers:

historical, process, applied, and other geomorphologies
the form of the land
land-forming processes and geomorphic systems
the history of landforms
methodological isms

INTRODUCING GEOMORPHOLOGY to major tectonic plates, and their ‘lifespans’ range from
days to millennia to aeons (Figure 1.1).
The word geomorphology derives from three Greek Geomorphology was first used as a term to describe the
morphology of the Earth’s surface in the 1870s and 1880s
words: gew (the Earth), morfh (form), and logoV
(discourse). Geomorphology is therefore ‘a discourse on (e.g. de Margerie 1886, 315). It was originally defined as
Earth forms’. It is the study of Earth’s physical land- ‘the genetic study of topographic forms’ (McGee 1888,
surface features, its landforms – rivers, hills, plains, 547), and was used in popular parlance by 1896. Despite
beaches, sand dunes, and myriad others. Some work- the modern acquisition of its name, geomorphology is a
ers include submarine landforms within the scope of venerable discipline (Box 1.1). It investigates landforms
geomorphology. And some would add the landforms of and the processes that fashion them. A large corpus of
other terrestrial-type planets and satellites in the Solar geomorphologists expends much sweat in researching
System – Mars, the Moon, Venus, and so on. Landforms relationships between landforms and the processes act-
are conspicuous features of the Earth and occur every- ing on them now. These are the process or functional
where. They range in size from molehills to mountains geomorphologists. Many geomorphic processes affect,