WHAT IS GEOMORPHOLOGY?
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THE ORIGIN OF GEOMORPHOLOGY
Ancient Greek and Roman philosophers wondered
how mountains and other surface features in the
natural landscape had formed. Aristotle, Herodotus,
Seneca, Strabo, Xenophanes, and many others dis-
coursed on topics such as the origin of river valleys
and deltas, and the presence of seashells in mountains.
Xenophanes of Colophon (6. 580-480 nc) speculated
that, as scashells are found on the tops of moun-
tains, the surface of the Earch must have risen and
fallen. Herodotus (c. 484-420 nc) thought that the
lower part of Egypt was a former marine bay, reput-
edly saying ‘Egypt is the gift of the river, referring
to the year-by-year accumulation of river-borne silt in
the Nile delta region. Aristotle (384-322 nc) conjec-
‘ured that land and sea change places, with arcas that
are now dry land once being sea and ateas that are
now sea once being dry land. Strabo (64/63 nc-a0
232) observed that the land rises and falls, and sug-
gested that the size of a river delta depends on the
nature ofits catchment, the largest deltas being found
where the catchment areas are large and the surface
rocks within itare weak. Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4.n¢—
‘A 65) appears to have appreciated that rivers possess
the power to erode their valleys. About a millennium.
later, the illustrious Arab scholar ibn-Sina, also known,
as Avicenna (980-1037), who translated Aristotle,
propounded the view that some mountains are pro-
duced by differential erosion, running water and wind.
hollowing out softer rocks. During the Renaissance,
many scholars debated Earth history. Leonardo da
Vinci (1452-1519) believed that changes in the levels
of land and sea explained the presence of fossil marine
shells in mountains. He also opined that valleys were
cut by streams and that streams cartied material from
cone place and deposited it elsewhere. Inthe eighteenth,
century, Giovanni Targioni-Tozzeti (1712-84) recog-
nized evidence of steam erosion. He argued that the
valleys of the Amo, Val di Chaina, and Ombrosa in
Italy were excavated by rivers and floods resulting from
the bursting of barrier lakes, and suggested that the
irregular courses of streams relate to the differences
in the rocks in which they cus, a process now called
differential erosion. Jean-Ftienne Guettard (1715-86)
argued that streams destroy mountains and the sedi-
‘ment produced inthe process builds floodplains before
boeing carried to the sea. He also pointed to the effi-
cacy of marine erosion, noting the rapid destruction
of chalk clifis in northern France by the sea, and the
fact that the mountains of the Auvergne were extinct
volcanoes. Horace-Bénédict de Saussure (1740-99)
contended that valleys were produced by the streams
that flow within them, and that glaciers may erode
rocks. From these carly ideas onthe origin oflandforms
arose modern geomorphology. (See Chorley etal. 1964
and Kennedy 2005 for details on the development of
the subject.)
and are affected by; human activities. Applied geomor-
phologists explore this rich atea of enquiry, which is
largely an extension of process geomorphology. Many
landforms have a long history, and cheir present form.
does not always relate to the current processes acting
‘upon them. The nature and rate of geomorphic processes,
change with time, and some landforms were produced
under different environmental conditions, surviving
today as relict features. In high latitudes, many land-
forms are relies from the Quaternary glaciations; but, in
parts ofthe world, some landforms survive from millions
and hundreds of millions of years ago. Geomorphology,
then, has an importanc historical dimension, which is the
domain of the historical geomorphologists. In short,
modern geomorphologists study three chief aspects of
landforms ~ form, process, and history. The first «wo
are sometimes termed functional geomorphology, che
last historical geomorphology (Chorley 1978). Process
studies have enjoyed hegemony for some three or four
decades. Historical studies were sidelined by process
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