Fundamentals of

Geomorphology

This extensively revised, restructured, and updated edition continues to present an engaging and
comprehensive introduction to the subject, exploring the world’s landforms from a broad systems
perspective. It covers the basics of Earth surface forms and processes, while reflecting on the latest
developments in the field. Fundamentals of Geomorphology begins with a consideration of the nature
of geomorphology, process and form, history, and geomorphic systems, and moves on to discuss:

• Structure: structural landforms associated with plate tectonics and those associated with volcanoes,
impact craters, and folds, faults, and joints.
• Process and form: landforms resulting from, or influenced by, the exogenic agencies of weathering,
running water, flowing ice and meltwater, ground ice and frost, the wind, and the sea; landforms
developed on limestone; and landscape evolution, a discussion of ancient landforms, including
palaeosurfaces, stagnant landscape features, and evolutionary aspects of landscape change.

This third edition has been fully updated to include a clearer initial explanation of the nature of
geomorphology, of land-surface process and form, and of land-surface change over different timescales.
The text has been restructured to incorporate information on geomorphic materials and processes at
suitable points in the book. Finally, historical geomorphology has been integrated throughout the text
to reflect the importance of history in all aspects of geomorphology.
Fundamentals of Geomorphology provides a stimulating and innovative perspective on the key topics
and debates within the field of geomorphology. Written in an accessible and lively manner, it includes
guides to further reading, chapter summaries, and an extensive glossary of key terms. The book is also
illustrated throughout with over 200 informative diagrams and attractive photographs, all in colour.

Richard John Huggett is a Reader in Physical Geography at the University of Manchester, UK.
ROUTLEDGE FUNDAMENTALS OF PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY SERIES
Series Editor: John Gerrard

This new series of focused, introductory textbooks presents comprehensive, up-to-date introductions
to the fundamental concepts, natural processes and human/environmental impacts within each of the
core physical geography sub-disciplines. Each volume in this uniformly designed series contains student-
friendly features: plentiful illustrations, boxed case studies, key concepts and summaries, further reading
guides and a glossary.

Already published:

Fundamentals of Soils
John Gerrard

Fundamentals of Biogeography, Second edition

Richard John Huggett

Fundamentals of Geomorphology, Second edition

Richard John Huggett

Fundamentals of Hydrology, Second edition

Tim Davie

Fundamentals of Geomorphology, Third edition

Richard John Huggett
 1
CHAPTER ONE

WHAT IS
GEOMORPHOLOGY?

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

• The nature of geomorphology

• Historical approaches
• Process approaches
• Other approaches
• Geomorphological ‘isms’

The word geomorphology derives from three Landforms are conspicuous features of the
Greek words: gew (the Earth), morfh (form), and Earth and occur everywhere. They range in size
logo~ (discourse). Geomorphology is therefore from molehills to mountains to major tectonic
‘a discourse on Earth forms’. The term was coined plates, and their ‘lifespans’ range from days to
sometime in the 1870s and 1880s to describe millennia to aeons (Figure 1.1).
the morphology of the Earth’s surface (e.g. de Geomorphology investigates landforms and
Margerie 1886, 315), was originally defined as the processes that fashion them. Form, process,
‘the genetic study of topographic forms’ (McGee and the interrelationships between them are
1888, 547), and was used in popular parlance central to understanding the origin and develop-
by 1896. Despite the modern acquisition of its ment of landforms. In geomorphology, form
name, geomorphology is a venerable discipline or morphology has three facets – constitution
(Box 1.1). Today, geomorphology is the study (chemical and physical properties described by
of Earth’s physical land-surface features, its material property variables), configuration (size
landforms – rivers, hills, plains, beaches, sand and form described by geometry variables), and
dunes, and myriad others. Some workers in- mass flow (rates of flow described by such mass-
clude submarine landforms within the scope of flow variables as discharge, precipitation rate,
geomorphology; and some would add the and evaporation rate) (Figure 1.2; Strahler 1980).
landforms of other terrestrial-type planets and These form variables contrast with dynamic
satellites in the Solar System – Mars, the Moon, variables (chemical and mechanical properties
Venus, and so on. representing the expenditure of energy and the
4 INTRODUCING LANDFORMS AND LANDSCAPES

Box 1.1 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 discoursed on topics such as the origin of river valleys
and deltas, and the presence of seashells in mountains. Xenophanes of Colophon
(c. 580–480 BC) speculated that, as seashells are found on the tops of mountains, the
surface of the Earth must have risen and fallen. Herodotus (c. 484–420) thought that the
lower part of Egypt was a former marine bay, reputedly 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 BC) conjectured that land and sea change places, with areas that are
now dry land once being sea and areas that are now sea once being dry land. Strabo
(64/63 BC–AD 23?) observed that the land rises and falls, and suggested that the size of
a river delta depends on the nature of its catchment, the largest deltas being found where
the catchment areas are large and the surface rocks within it are weak. Lucius Annaeus
Seneca (4 BC–AD 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 produced 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 carried material from one place and deposited it elsewhere.
In the eighteenth century, Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti (1712–84) recognized evidence of
stream erosion. He argued that rivers and floods resulting from the bursting of barrier
lakes excavated the valleys of the Arno, Val di Chaina, and Ombrosa in Italy, and
suggested that the irregular courses of streams relate to the differences in the rocks in
which they cut, a process now called differential erosion. Jean-Étienne Guettard (1715–86)
argued that streams destroy mountains and the sediment produced in the process builds
floodplains before being carried to the sea. He also pointed to the efficacy of marine
erosion, noting the rapid destruction of chalk cliffs 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 early ideas on the origin of
landforms arose modern geomorphology. (See Chorley et al. 1964 and Kennedy 2005
for details on the development of the subject.)

doing of work) associated with geomorphic pro- grains, grain shape, and moisture content of the
cesses; they include power, energy flux, force, beach; configurational properties include such
stress, and momentum. Take the case of a beach measures of beach geometry as slope angle, beach
(Figure 1.3). Constitutional properties include the profile form, and water depth; mass-flow variables
degree of sorting of grains, mean diameter of include rates of erosion, transport, and deposition.
 WHAT IS GEOMORPHOLOGY? 5

Figure 1.1 Landforms at different scales and their interactions with exogenic (external) and endogenic
(internal) processes.

Figure 1.2 Process–form interactions – the core of geomorphology.

6 INTRODUCING LANDFORMS AND LANDSCAPES

The nature of the mutual connection between

Earth surface process and Earth surface form
has lain at the heart of geomorphological dis-
course. The language in which geomorphologists
have expressed these connections has altered with
changing cultural, social, and scientific contexts.
In very broad terms, a qualitative approach begun
by Classical thinkers and traceable through to the
mid-twentieth century preceded a quantitative
approach. Early writers pondered the origin of
Earth’s surface features, linking the forms they
saw, such as mountains, to assumed processes,
such as catastrophic floods. An excellent example
is the work of Nicolaus Steno (alias Niels Steensen,
1638–86). While carrying out his duties as court
physician to Grand Duke Ferdinand II at Florence,
Steno explored the Tuscan landscape and devised
Figure 1.3 Process–form interactions for a beach. a six-stage sequence of events to explain the
(Photograph by Andy Short) current plains and hills (Steno 1916 edn) (Figure
1.4). The first true geomorphologists, such as
Dynamic variables include drag stresses set William Morris Davis and Grove Karl Gilbert,
up by water currents associated with waves (and also tried to infer how the landforms they saw in
modulated by tides), possibly by channelled water the field were fashioned by geomorphic processes.
flowing over the beach, and by wind, and also Currently, there are at least four approaches
include forces created by burrowing animals and used by geomorphologists in studying landforms
humans digging beach material. (Slaymaker 2009; see also Baker and Twidale
Geomorphic processes are the multifarious 1991):
chemical and physical means by which the
Earth’s surface undergoes modification. They 1. A process–response (process–form) or func-
are driven by geological forces emanating from tional approach that builds upon chemistry
inside the Earth (endogenic or endogene pro- and physics and utilizes a systems method-
cesses), by forces originating at or near the ology.
Earth’s surface and in the atmosphere (exogenic 2. A landform evolution approach that has its
or exogene processes), and by forces coming roots in historical geological science (geo-
from outside the Earth (extraterrestrial processes, history) and that explores the important
such as asteroid impacts). They include processes historical dimension of many landforms.
of transformation and transfer associated with 3. An approach that focuses on characterizing
weathering, gravity, water, wind, and ice. Mutual landforms and landform systems and that
interactions between form and process are the stems from geographical spatial science.
core of geomorphic investigation – form affects 4. An environmentally sensitive approach to land-
process and process affects form. In a wider set- forms, systems of landforms, and landscapes
ting, atmospheric processes, ecological processes, at regional to global scales.
and geological processes influence, and in turn are
influenced by, geomorphic process – form This book will not look specifically at the third
interactions (Figure 1.2). and fourth approaches, although it will mention
 WHAT IS GEOMORPHOLOGY? 7

Figure 1.4 Steno’s six-stage landscape history of the Tuscan region. First, just after Creation, the region
was covered by a ‘watery fluid’, out of which inorganic sediments precipitated to form horizontal,
homogeneous strata. Second, the newly formed strata emerged from their watery covering to form a
single, continuous plain of dry land, beneath which the force of fires or water ate out huge caverns. Third,
some of the caverns might have collapsed to produce valleys, into which rushed the waters of the Flood.
Fourth, new strata of heterogeneous materials containing fossils were deposited in the sea, which now
stood at higher level than it had prior to the Flood and occupied the valleys. Fifth, the new strata emerged
when the Flood waters receded to form a huge plain, and were then undermined by a second generation
of caverns. Finally, the new strata collapsed into the cavities eaten out beneath them to produce the Earth’s
present topography in the region. Source: Adapted from Steno (1916 edn)

them in passing. Interested readers should read go hand-in-hand, so that historical geomorphol-
the fascinating paper by Jozef Minár and Ian S. ogists consider process in their explanations of
Evans (2008). The process and historical ap- landform evolution while process geomorphol-
proaches dominate modern geomorphology ogists may need to appreciate the history of the
(Summerfield 2005), with the former predom- landforms they investigate. Nonetheless, either a
inating, at least in Anglo-American and Japanese process or an historical approach has tended to
geomorphology. They have come to be called dominate the field at particular times. Process
surface process geomorphology, or simply process studies have enjoyed hegemony for some three or
geomorphology, and historical geomorphology four decades, but sidelined historical studies are
(e.g. Chorley 1978; Embleton and Thornes 1979), making a strong comeback.
although the tag ‘historical geomorphology’ is George Gaylord Simpson (1963), an American
not commonly used. Historical geomorphology palaeontologist, captured the nature of historical
tends to focus around histories or trajectories of and process approaches in his distinction between
landscape evolution and adopts a sequential, ‘immanence’ (processes that may always occur
chronological view; process geomorphology tends under the right historical conditions – weathering,
to focus around the mechanics of geomorphic erosion, deposition, and so on) and ‘configura-
processes and process–response relationships tion’ (the state or succession of states created by
(how geomorphic systems respond to disturb- the interaction of immanent process with histor-
ances). Largely, historical geomorphology and ical circumstances). The contrast is between a
process geomorphology are complementary and ‘what happens’ approach (timeless knowledge
8 INTRODUCING LANDFORMS AND LANDSCAPES

– immanence) and a ‘what happened’ approach the size and age of a landform increase, so present
(timebound knowledge – configuration). In conditions can explain fewer of its properties and
simple terms, geomorphologists may study geo- geomorphologists must infer more about its past.
morphic systems in action today, but such studies Figure 1.5 summarizes his idea. Evidently, such
are necessarily short-term, lasting for a few years small-scale landforms and processes as sediment
or decades and principally investigate immanent movement and river bedforms are explicable
properties. Yet geomorphic systems have histories with recent historical information. River channel
that go back centuries, millennia, or millions of morphology may have a considerable historical
years. Using the results of short-term studies to component, as when rivers flow on alluvial plain
predict how geomorphic systems will change over surfaces that events during the Pleistocene deter-
long periods is difficult owing to environmental mined. Explanations for large-scale landforms,
changes and the occurrence of singular events such as structurally controlled drainage networks
(configuration in Simpson’s parlance) such as and mountain ranges, require mainly historical
bouts of uplift and the breakup of landmasses. information. A corollary of this idea is that the
Stanley A. Schumm (1991; see also Schumm and older and bigger a landform, the less accurate will
Lichty 1965) tried to resolve this problem, and in be predictions and postdictions about it based
doing so established some links between process upon present conditions. It also shows that an
studies and historical studies. He argued that, as understanding of landforms requires a variable

Figure 1.5 The components of historical explanation needed to account for geomorphic events of
increasing size and age. The top right of the diagram contains purely historical explanations, while the
bottom left contains purely modern explanations. The two explanations overlap in the middle zone, the top
curve showing the maximum extent of modern explanations and the lower curve showing the maximum
extent of historical explanations. Source: After Schumm (1985b, 1991, 53)
 WHAT IS GEOMORPHOLOGY? 9

mix of process geomorphology and historical geo- such studies were difficult and largely educated
morphology; and that the two subjects should guesswork. However, the brilliant successes of
work together rather than stand in polar opposi- early historical geomorphologists should not be
tion. overlooked.

William Morris Davis

HISTORICAL GEOMORPHOLOGY
The ‘geographical cycle’, expounded by William
All landforms have a history. Such landforms as Morris Davis, was the first modern theory of
ripples on beaches and in riverbeds and terra- landscape evolution (e.g. Davis 1889, 1899, 1909).
cettes on hillslopes tend to be short-lived, so that It assumed that uplift takes place quickly. Geo-
their history will pass unrecorded unless burial morphic processes, without further complica-
by sediments ensures their survival in the strati- tions from tectonic movements, then gradually
graphic (rock) record. For this reason, geomor- wear down the raw topography. Furthermore,
phologists with a prime interest in long-term slopes within landscapes decline through time
changes usually deal with relatively more persistent – maximum slope angles slowly lessen (though
landforms at scales ranging from coastal features, few field studies have substantiated this claim).
landslides, and river terraces, through plains and So topography is reduced, little by little, to an
plateaux, to regional and continental drainage extensive flat region close to baselevel – a
systems. Nonetheless, ripple marks and other peneplain. The peneplain may contain occasional
small-scale sedimentary features that do manage hills, called monadnocks after Mount Monadnock
to survive can provide clues to past processes and in New Hampshire, USA, which are local erosional
events. remnants, standing conspicuously above the
Historical geomorphology is the study of general level. The reduction process creates a time
landform evolution or changes in landforms over sequence of landforms that progress through the
medium and long timescales, usually timescales stages of youth, maturity, and old age. However,
well beyond the span of an individual human’s these terms, borrowed from biology, are mis-
experience – centuries, millennia, millions and leading and much censured (e.g. Ollier 1967; Ollier
hundreds of millions of years. It brings in the and Pain 1996, 204–5). The ‘geographical cycle’
historical dimension of the subject with all its was designed to account for the development of
attendant assumptions and methods, and relies humid temperate landforms produced by pro-
mainly on the form of the land surface and on the longed wearing down of uplifted rocks offering
sedimentary record for its databases. uniform resistance to erosion. It was extended to
other landforms, including arid landscapes, glacial
landscapes, periglacial landscapes, to landforms
The foundations of historical
produced by shore processes, and to karst
geomorphology
landscapes.
Traditionally, historical geomorphologists strove William Morris Davis’s ‘geographical cycle’ – in
to work out landscape history by mapping mor- which landscapes are seen to evolve through stages
phological (form) and sedimentary features. Their of youth, maturity, and old age – must be regarded
golden rule was the dictum that ‘the present is as a classic work, even if it has been superseded
the key to the past’. This was a warrant to assume (Figure 1.6). Its appeal seems to have lain in its
that the effects of geomorphic processes seen in theoretical tenor and in its simplicity (Chorley
action today may be legitimately used to infer the 1965). It had an all-pervasive influence on
causes of assumed landscape changes in the past. geomorphological thought and spawned the once
Before reliable dating techniques were available, highly influential field of denudation chronology.
10 INTRODUCING LANDFORMS AND LANDSCAPES

Figure 1.6 William Morris Davis’s idealized ‘geographical cycle’ in which a landscape evolves through
‘life-stages’ to produce a peneplain. (a) Youth: a few ‘consequent’ streams (p. 214), V-shaped valley cross-
sections, limited floodplain formation, large areas of poorly drained terrain between streams with lakes and
marshes, waterfalls and rapids common where streams cross more resistant beds, stream divides broad
and ill-defined, some meanders on the original surface. (b) Maturity: well-integrated drainage system, some
streams exploiting lines of weak rocks, master streams have attained grade (p. 211), waterfalls, rapids,
lakes, and marshes largely eliminated, floodplains common on valley floors and bearing meandering rivers,
valley no wider than the width of meander belts, relief (difference in elevation between highest and lowest
points) is at a maximum, hillslopes and valley sides dominate the landscape. (c) Old age: trunk streams
more important again, very broad and gently sloping valleys, floodplains extensive and carrying rivers with
broadly meandering courses, valleys much wider than the width of meander belts, areas between streams
reduced in height and stream divides not so sharp as in the maturity stage, lakes, swamps, and marshes
lie on the floodplains, mass-wasting dominates fluvial processes, stream adjustments to rock types now
vague, extensive areas lie at or near the base level of erosion. Source: Adapted from Holmes (1965, 473)
 WHAT IS GEOMORPHOLOGY? 11

Eduard Brückner and Albrecht Penck landscape was automatically in disequilibrium

Other early historical geomorphologists used with the new processes. The disequilibrium con-
geologically young sediments to interpret Pleis- ditions produced a phase of intense activity, in-
tocene events. Eduard Brückner and Albrecht volving the reshaping of hillslopes, the reworking
Penck’s work on glacial effects on the Bavarian of regolith, and the changing of sediment stores
Alps and their forelands provided the first insights in valley bottoms.
into the effects of the Pleistocene ice ages on relief Richard Chorley and his co-authors (1984,
(Penck and Brückner 1901–9). Their classic river- 1–42) claimed that geomorphologists working on
terrace sequence gave names to the main glacial Quaternary timescales lacked a cogent theoretical
stages – Donau, Gunz, Mindel, Riss, and Würm – base for explaining the links between climatic
and sired Quaternary geomorphology (see Appen- forcing and geomorphic change, and adopted a
dix 1 for the divisions of the geological time). rather spongy paradigm involving the concepts
of thresholds, feedbacks, complex response, and
episodic activity. Over twenty years later, climatic
Modern historical geomorphology changes induced by changes in the frequency and
Historical geomorphology has developed since magnitude of solar radiation receipt – orbital
Davis’s time, and geomorphologists no longer forcing (p. 258) – provide in part the missing
squeeze the interpretation of longer-term changes theoretical base against which to assess the com-
of landscapes into the straitjacket of the geo- plex dynamics of landform systems. The discovery
graphical cycle. They rely now on various chrono- was that landscape changes over periods of 1,000
logical analyses, particularly those based on to 100,000 years display consistent patterns largely
stratigraphical studies of Quaternary sediments, forced by the interplay of climatic changes, sea
and upon a much fuller appreciation of geo- level changes, uplift, and subsidence.
morphic and tectonic processes (e.g. Brown 1980). Originally, most Quaternary geomorphologists
Observed stratigraphical relationships furnish concerned themselves with local and regional
relative chronologies (events placed in order of changes, usually confining their enquiries to
occurrence but without accurately fixed dates); Holocene and Late Pleistocene, so to roughly the
absolute chronologies derive from sequences dated last 18,000 years of the 2.6-million-year-long
using historical records, radiocarbon analysis, Quaternary. Since the 1950s, as their knowledge
dendrochronology, luminescence, palaeomag- of the last 18,000 years grew, Quaternary geo-
netism, and so forth (Appendix 2). Historical morphologists started applying this knowledge
studies tend to fall into two groups: Quaternary to earlier times. In doing so, they collaborated
geomorphology and long-term geomorphology. with other Earth scientists to produce palaeogeo-
graphical reconstructions of particular areas at
Quaternary geomorphology specific times and to build postdictive or
The environmental vicissitudes of the last couple retrodictive models (that is, models that predict
of million years have wrought substantial adjust- in retrospect), so contributing to a revival of
ments in many landforms and landscapes. In historical geomorphology (Nunn 1987).
particular, climatic swings from glacial to inter-
glacial conditions altered geomorphic process Long-term geomorphology
rates and process regimes in landscapes. These Studies of landforms and landscapes older than the
alterations drove some landscapes into disequi- Quaternary, or even late Quaternary, have come
librium, causing geomorphic activity to increase to be called long-term geomorphology (e.g. Ollier
for a while or possibly to stop. This was especially 1992). They include investigations of Cenozoic,
true with a change in process regime as the Mesozoic, and even Palaeozoic landforms. Davis’s
12 INTRODUCING LANDFORMS AND LANDSCAPES

geographical cycle was in some ways the pro- The old landforms surviving in today’s landscapes
genitor of long-term geomorphology. Later, other are, in the main, large-scale features that erosion
geomorphologists became interested in baselevel or deposition might have modified before or
surfaces and the school of denudation chronology during the Quaternary.
emerged studying the historical development of
landscapes by denudation, usually at times before
PROCESS GEOMORPHOLOGY
the Quaternary, using as evidence erosion surfaces
and their mantling deposits, drainage patterns,
The history of process
stream long-profiles, and geological structures.
geomorphology
Key figures in this endeavour were Sydney W.
Wooldridge and David L. Linton in Britain, Eric Process geomorphology is the study of the pro-
Brown in Wales, and Lester C. King in South cesses responsible for landform development.
Africa. In the modern era, the first process geomor-
Baselevel surfaces still engage the attention of phologist, carrying on the tradition started by
geomorphologists. Indeed, since about 1990, the Leonardo da Vinci (p. 4), was Grove Karl Gilbert.
field of long-term geomorphology has experi- In his treatise on the Henry Mountains of Utah,
enced a spectacular instauration. The reasons for USA, Gilbert discussed the mechanics of fluvial
this lie in the stimulation provided by the plate processes (Gilbert 1877), and later he investigated
tectonics revolution and its rebuilding of the the transport of debris by running water (Gilbert
links between tectonics and topography, in the 1914). Up to about 1950, important contributors
development of numerical models that investi- to process geomorphology included Ralph Alger
gate the links between tectonic processes and Bagnold (p. 316), who considered the physics of
surface processes, and in major breakthroughs blown sand and desert dunes, and Filip Hjulstrøm
in analytical and geochronological (absolute (p. 195), who investigated fluvial processes.
dating) techniques (Bishop 2007). The latest After 1950, several ‘big players’ emerged who
numerical models of landscape evolution routinely set process geomorphology moving apace. Arthur
combine bedrock river processes and slope pro- N. Strahler was instrumental in establishing
cesses; they tend to focus on high-elevation passive process geomorphology, his 1952 paper called
continental margins and convergent zones; and ‘Dynamic basis of geomorphology’ being a land-
they regularly include the effects of rock flexure mark publication. He proposed a ‘system of
(bending and folding) and isostasy (the re- geomorphology grounded in basic principles of
establishment of gravitational equilibrium in the mechanics and fluid dynamics’ that he hoped
lithosphere following, for example, the melting would ‘enable geomorphic processes to be treated
of an ice sheet or the deposition of sediment). as manifestations of various types of shear stresses,
Radiogenic dating methods, such as apatite both gravitational and molecular, acting upon any
fission-track analysis (Appendix 2), allow the type of earth material to produce varieties of strain,
determination of rates of rock uplift and ex- or failure, which we recognize as the manifold
humation by denudation from relatively shallow processes of weathering, erosion, transportation
crustal depths (up to about 4 km). Despite this, and deposition’ (Strahler 1952, 923). In fact, the
long-term geomorphology still depends on research of Strahler and his students, and that
landform analysis and relative dating, as most of Luna B. Leopold and M. Gordon Wolman in
absolute dating methods fail for the timescales of fluvial geomorphology (e.g. Leopold et al. 1964),
interest. It is not an easy task to set an accurate was largely empirical, involving a statistical
age to long-term development landforms, and in treatment of form variables (such as width, depth,
many cases, later processes alter or destroy them. and meander wavelength) and surrogates for
 WHAT IS GEOMORPHOLOGY? 13

variables that controlled them (such as river dis- Measuring geomorphic processes
charge) (see Lane and Richards 1997). The chal- Some geomorphic processes have a long record
lenge of characterizing the geomorphic processes of measurement. The oldest year-by-year record
themselves was eventually taken up by William E. is the flood levels of the River Nile in Lower Egypt.
H. Culling (1960, 1963, 1965) and Michael J. Yearly readings at Cairo are available from the
Kirkby (1971). It was not until the 1980s that geo- time of Muhammad, and some stone-inscribed
morphologists, in particular William E. Dietrich records date from the first dynasty of the pharaohs,
and his colleagues in the Universities of Wash- around 3100 BC. The amount of sediment
ington and Berkeley, USA (e.g. Dietrich and Smith annually carried down the Mississippi River was
1983), developed Strahler’s vision of a truly gauged during the 1840s, and the rates of modern
dynamic geomorphology (see Lane and Richards denudation in some of the world’s major rivers
1997). There is no doubt that Strahler’s ground- were estimated in the 1860s. The first efforts to
breaking ideas spawned a generation of Anglo- measure weathering rates were made in the late
American geomorphologists who researched the nineteenth century. Measurements of the dis-
small-scale erosion, transport, and deposition of solved load of rivers enabled estimates of chemical
sediments in a mechanistic and fluid dynamic denudation rates to be made in the first half of the
framework (cf. Martin and Church 2004). More- twentieth century, and patchy efforts were made
over, modern modelling studies of the long-term to widen the range of processes measured in the
evolution of entire landscapes represent a field. But it was the quantitative revolution in
culmination of this work (pp. 174–7). geomorphology, started in the 1940s, that was
Another line of process geomorphology largely responsible for the measuring of process
considered ideas about stability in landscapes. rates in different environments.
Stanley A. Schumm, a fluvial geomorphologist, Since about 1950, the attempts to quantify
refined notions of landscape stability to include geomorphic processes in the field have grown
thresholds and dynamically metastable states fast. An early example is the work of Anders Rapp
and made an important contribution to the under- (1960), who tried to quantify all the processes
standing of timescales (p. 27). Stanley W. Trimble active in a subarctic environment and assess their
worked on historical and modern sediment comparative significance. His studies enabled him
budgets in small catchments (e.g. Trimble 1983). to conclude that the most powerful agent of
Richard J. Chorley brought process geomorphol- removal from the Karkevagge drainage basin
ogy to the UK and demonstrated the power of a was running water bearing material in solution.
systems approach to the subject. An increasing number of hillslopes and drain-
age basins have been instrumented, that is, had
measuring devices installed to record a range of
The legacy of process
geomorphic processes. The instruments used
geomorphology
on hillslopes and in geomorphology generally are
Process geomorphologists have done their subject explained in several books (e.g. Goudie 1994).
at least three great services. First, they have built Interestingly, some of the instrumented catch-
up a database of process rates in various parts of ments established in the 1960s have recently
the globe. Second, they have built increasingly received unexpected attention from scientists
refined models for predicting the short-term (and studying global warming, because records last-
in some cases long-term) changes in landforms. ing decades in climatically sensitive areas – high
Third, they have generated some enormously latitudes and high altitudes – are invaluable.
powerful ideas about stability and instability in However, after half a century of intensive field
geomorphic systems (see pp. 23–32). measurements, some areas, including Europe
14 INTRODUCING LANDFORMS AND LANDSCAPES

and North America, still have better coverage and (2) the response of landforms to climate,
than other areas. And field measurement pro- hydrology, tectonics, and land use (Slaymaker
grammes should ideally be ongoing and work 2000b, 5). The focus on mass and energy fluxes
on as fine a resolution as practicable, because explores the short-term links between land-surface
rates measured at a particular place may vary systems and climate that are forged through
through time and may not be representative of the storages and movements of energy, water,
nearby places. biogeochemicals, and sediments. Longer-term
and broader-scale interconnections between
Modelling geomorphic processes landforms and climate, water budgets, vegetation
Since the 1960s and 1970s, geomorphologists cover, tectonics, and human activity are a focus
have tended to direct process studies towards the for process geomorphologists who take a histor-
construction of models for predicting short-term ical perspective and investigate the causes and
changes in landforms, that is, changes happen- effects of changing processes regimes during the
ing over human timescales. Such models have Quaternary.
drawn heavily on soil engineering, for example in The developments in geomorphology partly
the case of slope stability, and hydraulic engin- parallel developments in the new field of biogeo-
eering in the cases of flow and sediment entrain- science. This rapidly evolving interdisciplinary
ment and deposition in rivers. Nonetheless, some subject investigates the interactions between the
geomorphologists, including Michael J. Kirkby biological, chemical, and physical processes in life
and Jonathan D. Phillips, have carved out a niche (the biosphere) with the atmosphere, hydrosphere,
for themselves in the modelling department. These pedosphere, and geosphere (the solid Earth). It
groundbreaking endeavours led to the model- has its own journal – Biogeosciences – that started
ling of long-term landscape evolution, which now in 2001. Moreover, the American Geophysical
lies at the forefront of geomorphic research. The Union now has a biogeoscience section that
spur to these advances in landscape modelling focuses upon biogeochemistry, biophysics, and
was huge advances in computational technology, planetary ecosystems.
coupled with the establishment of a set of process
equations designated ‘geomorphic transport laws’
OTHER GEOMORPHOLOGIES
(Dietrich et al. 2003). As Yvonne Martin and
Michael Church (2004, 334) put it, ‘The modelling Although process and historical studies dominate
of landscape evolution has been made quanti- much modern geomorphological enquiry, par-
tatively feasible by the advent of high speed com- ticularly in English-speaking nations, other types
puters that permit the effects of multiple processes of study exist. For example, structural geomor-
to be integrated together over complex topo- phologists, who were once a very influential group,
graphic surfaces and extended periods of time’. argued that underlying geological structures are
Figure 1.7 shows the output from a hillslope the key to understanding many landforms. Today,
evolution model; landscape evolution models will other geomorphologies include applied geo-
be discussed in Chapter 8. morphology, tectonic geomorphology, submarine
geomorphology, climatic geomorphology, and
Process studies and global planetary geomorphology.
environmental change
With the current craze for taking a global view,
Applied geomorphology
process geomorphology has found natural links
with other Earth and life sciences. Main thrusts Applied geomorphology, which is largely an
of research investigate (1) energy and mass fluxes extension of process geomorphology, tackles the
 WHAT IS GEOMORPHOLOGY? 15

Figure 1.7 Example of a geomorphic model: the predicted evolution of a scarp bounding a plateau
according to assumptions made about slope processes using a numerical model of hillslope evolution built
by Mike Kirkby. (a) Slope evolution with creep processes running at 100 cm2/year and no wash processes.
(b) Slope evolution with wash process dominating.

manner in which geomorphic processes affect, buildings, landslide protection, river manage-
and are affected by, human activities. Process ment and river channel restoration (e.g. Brookes
geomorphologists, armed with their models, and Shields 1996), and the planning and design
have contributed to the investigation of worrying of landfill sites (e.g. Gray 1993). Other process
problems associated with the human impacts geomorphologists have tackled general applied
on landscapes. They have studied coastal erosion issues. Geomorphology in Environmental Planning
and beach management (e.g. Bird 1996; Viles (Hooke 1988), for example, considered the inter-
and Spencer 1996), soil erosion, the weathering of action between geomorphology and public
16 INTRODUCING LANDFORMS AND LANDSCAPES

policies, with contributions on rural land-use Tectonic geomorphology

and soil erosion, urban land-use, slope manage-
ment, river management, coastal management, This studies the interaction between tectonic and
and policy formulation. Geomorphology in Envir- geomorphic processes in regions where the Earth’s
onmental Management (Cooke 1990), as its title crust actively deforms. Advances in the meas-
suggests, looked at the role played by geomor- urement of rates and in the understanding of
phology in management aspects of the environ- the physical basis of tectonic and geomorphic
ment. Geomorphology and Land Management processes have revitalized it as a field of enquiry.
in a Changing Environment (McGregor and It is a stimulating and highly integrative field that
Thompson 1995) focused upon problems of man- uses techniques and data drawn from studies of
aging land against a background of environmental geomorphology, seismology, geochronology,
change. The conservation of ancient and modern structure, geodesy, and Quaternary climate change
landforms is an expanding aspect of applied (e.g. Burbank and Anderson 2001).
geomorphology.
Three aspects of applied geomorphology have Submarine geomorphology
been brought into a sharp focus by the impending This deals with the form, origin, and development
environmental change associated with global of features of the sea floor. Submarine landforms
warming (Slaymaker 2000b) and illustrate the cover about 71 per cent of the Earth’s surface, but
value of geomorphological expertise. First, applied are mostly less well studied than their terrestrial
geomorphologists are ideally placed to work on counterparts are. In shallow marine environments,
the mitigation of natural hazards of geomorphic landforms include ripples, dunes, sand waves,
origin, which may well increase in magnitude and sand ridges, shorelines, and subsurface channels.
frequency during the twenty-first century and In the continental slope transition zone are sub-
beyond. Landslides and debris flows may become marine canyons and gullies, inter-canyon areas,
more common, soil erosion may become more intraslope basins, and slump and slide scars. The
severe and the sediment load of some rivers deep marine environment contains varied land-
increase, some beaches and cliffs may erode faster, forms, including trench and basin plains, trench
coastal lowlands may become submerged, and fans, sediment wedges, abyssal plains, distributary
frozen ground in the tundra environments may channels, and submarine canyons.
thaw. Applied geomorphologists can address all
these potentially damaging changes. Second, a
Planetary geomorphology
worrying aspect of global warming is its effect on
natural resources – water, vegetation, crops, and This is the study of landforms on planets and large
so on. Applied geomorphologists, equipped with moons with a solid crust, for example Venus,
such techniques as terrain mapping, remote Mars, and some moons of Jupiter and Saturn.
sensing, and geographical information systems, It is a thriving branch of geomorphology (e.g.
can contribute to environmental management Howard 1978; Baker 1981; Grant 2000; Irwin
programmes. Third, applied geomorphologists et al. 2005). Surface processes on other planets
are able to translate the predictions of global and and their satellites depend materially on their
regional temperature rises into predictions of mean distance from the Sun, which dictates the
critical boundary changes, such as the poleward annual receipt of solar energy, on their rotational
shift of the permafrost line and the tree-line, which period, and on the nature of the planetary atmos-
can then guide decisions about tailoring economic phere. Observed processes include weathering,
activity to minimize the effects of global environ- aeolian activity, fluvial activity, glacial activity,
mental change. and mass movements.
 WHAT IS GEOMORPHOLOGY? 17

Climatic geomorphology interpretation. First, the principle of simplicity

or, as it is commonly called in geomorphology,
The chief climatic geomorphologist exponents the uniformity of process states that no extra,
are French and German. Their arguments rest fanciful, or unknown causes should be invoked
on the not universally accepted observation that if available processes will do the job. It is the
each climatic zone (tropical, arid, temperate, supposition of actualism, the belief that past events
for example) engenders a distinctive suite of are the outcome of processes seen in operation
landforms (e.g. Tricart and Cailleux 1972; Büdel today. However, the dogma of actualism is being
1982). Climate does strongly influence geo- challenged, and its flip-side – non-actualism – is
morphic processes, but it is doubtful that the set gaining ground. Some geologists and geomorphol-
of geomorphic processes within each climatic zone ogists are coming round to the view that the
creates characteristic landforms. The current circumstances under which processes acted in the
consensus is that, owing to climatic and tectonic past were very different from those experienced
change, the climatic factor in landform develop- today, and that those differences greatly influence
ment is more complicated than climatic geo- the interpretation of past processes. So, before the
morphologists have suggested on occasions evolution of land plants, and especially the grasses,
(cf. p. 51). the processes of weathering, erosion, and deposi-
tion would have occurred in a different context,
and Palaeozoic deserts, or even Permian deserts,
GEOMORPHOLOGICAL ‘ISMS’:
may not directly correspond to modern deserts.
A NOTE ON METHODOLOGY
The second substantive claim concerns the rate of
Process and historical geomorphologists alike Earth surface processes, two extreme views being
face a problem with their methodological base. gradualism and catastrophism (p. 33). The third
In practising their trade, all scientists, including substantive claim concerns the changing state of
geomorphologists, follow rules. Scientific prac- the Earth’s surface, steady-statism arguing for a
titioners established these rules, or guidelines. more or less constant state, or at least cyclical
They advise scientists how to go about the busi- changes about a comparatively invariant mean
ness of making scientific enquiries. In other words, state, and directionalism arguing in favour of
they are guidelines concerned with scientific directional changes.
methodology or procedures. The foremost guide- Uniformitarianism is a widely, but too often
line – the uniformity of law – is the premise from loosely, used term in geomorphology. A com-
which all scientists work. It is the presupposition mon mistake is to equate uniformitarianism
that natural laws are invariant in time and space. with actualism. Uniformitarianism was a system
In simple terms, this means that, throughout of assumptions about Earth history argued by
Earth history, the laws of physics, chemistry, and Charles Lyell, the nineteenth-century geologist.
biology have always been the same. Water has Lyell articulately advocated three ‘uniformities’,
always flowed downhill, carbon dioxide has always as well as the uniformity of law: the uniformity
been a greenhouse gas, and most living things of process (actualism), the uniformity of rate
have always depended upon carbon, hydrogen, (gradualism), and the uniformity of state (steady-
and oxygen. statism). Plainly, extended to geomorphology,
Three other guidelines are relevant to geo- uniformitarianism, as introduced by Lyell, is a
morphology. Unlike the uniformity of law, which set of beliefs about Earth surface processes and
is a universally accepted basis for scientific investi- states. Other sets of beliefs are possible. The
gation, they are substantial claims or supposi- diametric opposite of Lyell’s uniformitarian
tions about how the Earth works and are open to position would be a belief in the non-uniformity
18 INTRODUCING LANDFORMS AND LANDSCAPES

of process (non-actualism), the non-uniformity of FURTHER READING

rate (catastrophism), and the non-uniformity
Ahnert, F. (1998) Introduction to Geomorphology.
of state (directionalism). All other combina- London: Arnold.
tions of assumption are possible and give rise to A good starting text with many unusual examples.
different ‘systems of Earth history’ (Huggett Bloom, A. L. (1998) Geomorphology: A Systematic
1997a). The various systems may be tested against Analysis of Late Cenozoic Landforms, 3rd edn.
field evidence. To be sure, directionalism was Upper Saddle River, N.J. and London: Prentice
accepted even before Lyell’s death, and non- Hall.
actualism and, in particular, catastrophism are A sound text with a focus on North America.
discussed in geomorphological circles. Kennedy, B. A. (2005) Inventing the Earth: Ideas on
Landscape Development since 1740. Oxford:
Blackwell.
SUMMARY A good read on the relatively recent history of
ideas about landscape development.
Geomorphology is the study of landforms. Three
Slaymaker, O. (2009) The future of geomorphology.
key elements of geomorphology are land form, Geography Compass 3, 329–49.
geomorphic process, and land-surface history. Heavy on philosophy and not a smooth ride for
The two complementary main brands of geo- the beginner, but worth the effort.
morphology are historical geomorphology and Strahler, A. H. and Strahler, A. N. (2006) Introducing
process geomorphology. Other brands include Physical Geography, 4th edn. New York: John
applied geomorphology, tectonic geomorphol- Wiley & Sons.
Comprehensive and accessible coverage of all
ogy, submarine geomorphology, planetary geo-
aspects of physical geography if a general
morphology, and climatic geomorphology. background is needed.
Geomorphology has engaged in methodological
Summerfield, M. A. (1991) Global Geomorphology:
debates over the extent to which the present is the An Introduction to the Study of Landforms.
key to the past and the rates of Earth surface Harlow, Essex: Longman.
processes. A classic after just twenty years. Includes material
on the geomorphology of other planets.
Summerfield, M. A. (2005) A tale of two scales, or
ESSAY QUESTIONS the two geomorphologies. Transactions of the
Institute of British Geographers, New Series 30,
1 To what extent are early ideas in geo-
402–15.
morphology relevant today? A plainly written and thoughtful paper.
2 Explain why geomorphology encom- Thorn, C. E. (1988) An Introduction to Theoretical
passes a wide range of approaches. Geomorphology. Boston, Mass.: Unwin Hyman.
A very clear discussion of the big theoretical
3 Does geomorphology have a future? issues in geomorphology. Well worth a look.
 2
CHAPTER TWO

INTRODUCING
PROCESS AND FORM

Earth surface process and land form are key to geomorphic understanding. This chapter
introduces:

• Geomorphic systems
• Geomorphic models
• Land form

GEOMORPHIC SYSTEMS connected whole: a hillslope, and the mantle of

debris on it, records a propensity towards
reciprocal adjustment among a complex set of
Defining systems variables. The complex set of variables includes
rock type, which influences weathering rates, the
What is a geomorphic system? geotechnical properties of the soil, and rates of
Process geomorphologists commonly adopt a infiltration; climate, which influences slope
systems approach to their subject. To illustrate hydrology and so the routing of water over and
what this approach entails, take the example of a through the hillslope mantle; tectonic activity,
hillslope system. A hillslope extends from an which may alter baselevel; and the geometry of the
interfluve crest, along a valley side, to a sloping hillslope, which, acting mainly through slope angle
valley floor. It is a system insofar as it consists of and distance from the divide, influences the rates
things (rock waste, organic matter, and so forth) of processes such as landsliding, creep, solifluction
arranged in a particular way. The arrangement is (see p. 168), and wash. Change in any of the
seemingly meaningful, rather than haphazard, variables will tend to cause a readjustment of
because it is explicable in terms of physical hillslope form and process.
processes (Figure 2.1). The ‘things’ of which a
hillslope is composed may be described by such Isolated, closed, open, and
variables as particle size, soil moisture content, dissipative systems
vegetation cover, and slope angle. These variables, Systems of all kinds are open, closed, or isolated
and many others, interact to form a regular and according to how they interact, or do not interact,
20 INTRODUCING LANDFORMS AND LANDSCAPES

Figure 2.1 A hillslope as a system, showing storages (waste mantle), inputs (e.g. wind deposition and
debris production), outputs (e.g. wind erosion), throughputs (debris transport), and units (channel, valley-
side slope, interfluve).

with their surroundings (Huggett 1985, 5–7). system are endogenous or internal variables.
Traditionally, an isolated system is a system that Precipitation, solar radiation, tectonic uplift,
is completely cut off from its surroundings and and other such variables originating outside the
that cannot therefore import or export matter or system and affecting drainage basin dynamics are
energy. A closed system has boundaries open to exogenous or external variables. Interestingly, all
the passage of energy but not of matter. An open geomorphic systems can be thought of as resulting
system has boundaries across which energy and from a basic antagonism between endogenic
materials may move. All geomorphic systems, (tectonic and volcanic) processes driven by
including hillslopes, are open systems as they geological forces and exogenic (geomorphic)
exchange energy and matter with their sur- processes driven by climatic forces (Scheidegger
roundings. They are also dissipative systems, 1979). In short, tectonic processes create land,
which means that irreversible processes resulting and climatically influenced weathering and
in the dissipation of energy (generally in form of erosion destroy it. The events between the creation
friction or turbulence) govern them. Thus, to and the final destruction are what fascinate
maintain itself, a geomorphic system dissipates geomorphologists.
energy from such external sources as solar energy,
tectonic uplift, and precipitation.
Classifying systems
Internal and external system Systems are mental constructs and defined in
variables various ways. Two conceptions of systems are
Any geomorphic system has internal and external important in geomorphology: systems as process
variables. Take a drainage basin. Soil wetness, and form structures, and systems as simple and
streamflow, and other variables lying inside the complex structures (Huggett 1985, 4–5, 17–44).
 INTRODUCING PROCESS AND FORM 21

Geomorphic systems as form and hillslope represented as a store of materials:

process structures weathering of bedrock and wind deposition
Four kinds of geomorphic system may be add materials to the store, and erosion by wind
identified: form systems, process systems, form and fluvial erosion at the slope base removes
and process systems, and control systems. materials from the store. The materials pass
through the system and in doing so link the
1. Form systems. Form or morphological systems morphological components. In the case of the
are sets of form variables deemed to interrelate cliff and talus slope, it could be assumed that
in a meaningful way in terms of system origin rocks and debris fall from the cliff and deliver
or system function. Several measurements energy and rock debris to the talus below
could be made to describe the form of a (Figure 2.2b).
hillslope system. Form elements would include 3. Form and process systems. Process–form
measures of anything on a hillslope that has systems, also styled process–response systems,
size, shape, or physical properties. A simple comprise an energy-flow system linked to a form
characterization of hillslope form is shown in system in such a way that system processes may
Figure 2.2a, which depicts a cliff with a talus alter the system form and, in turn, the changed
slope at its base. All that could be learnt from system form alters the system processes.
this ‘form system’ is that the talus lies below A hillslope may be viewed in this way with
the cliff; no causal connections between the slope form variables and slope process variables
processes linking the cliff and talus slope are interacting. In the cliff-and-talus example, rock
inferred. Sophisticated characterizations of falling off the cliff builds up the talus store
hillslope and land-surface forms may be made (Figure 2.2c). However, as the talus store
using digital terrain models. increases in size, so it begins to bury the cliff face,
2. Process systems. Process systems, which are reducing the area that supplies debris. In
also called cascading or flow systems, are consequence, the rate of talus growth diminishes
defined as ‘interconnected pathways of trans- and the system changes at an ever-decreasing
port of energy or matter or both, together with rate. The process described is an example of
such storages of energy and matter as may be negative feedback, which is an important facet
required’ (Strahler 1980, 10). An example is a of many process–form systems (Box 2.1).

Figure 2.2 A cliff and talus slope viewed as (a) a form system, (b) a flow or cascading system, and (c) a
process–form or process–response system. Details are given in the text.
22 INTRODUCING LANDFORMS AND LANDSCAPES

Box 2.1 NEGATIVE AND POSITIVE FEEDBACK

Negative feedback occurs when a change in a system sets in motion a sequence of

changes that eventually neutralize the effects of the original change, so stabilizing the
system. An example occurs in a drainage basin system, where increased channel erosion
leads to a steepening of valley-side slopes, which accelerates slope erosion, which
increases stream bed-load, which reduces channel erosion (Figure 2.3a). The reduced
channel erosion then stimulates a sequence of events that stabilizes the system and
counteracts the effects of the original change. Some geomorphic systems also display
positive feedback relationships characterized by an original change being magnified and
the system being made unstable. An example is an eroding hillslope where the slope
erosion causes a reduction in infiltration capacity of water, which increases the amount
of surface runoff, which promotes even more slope erosion (Figure 2.3b). In short, a
‘vicious circle’ is created, and the system, being unstabilized, continues changing.

Geomorphic systems as simple or

complex structures
Three main types of system are recognized under
this heading: simple systems, complex but
disorganized systems, and complex and organized
systems.

1. Simple systems. The first two of these types

have a long and illustrious history of study.
Since at least the seventeenth-century revolu-
tion in science, astronomers have referred to
a set of heavenly bodies connected together
and acting upon each other according to
certain laws as a system. The Solar System is
the Sun and its planets. The Uranian system is
Uranus and its moons. These structures may
be thought of as simple systems. In geomor-
Figure 2.3 Feedback relationships in geomorphic
phology, a few boulders resting on a talus slope
systems. (a) Negative feedback in a valley-side
slope–stream system. (b) Positive feedback in an
is a simple system. The conditions needed to
eroding hillslope system. Details of the relation- dislodge the boulders, and their fate after
ships are given in the text. dislodgement, is predictable from mechanical
laws involving forces, resistances, and equa-
tions of motion, in much the same way that the
4. Control systems. Control systems are process– motion of the planets around the Sun can be
form systems that interact with humans. predicted from Newtonian laws.
They include managed rivers, coasts with sea 2. In a complex but disorganized system, a vast
defences, and some caves. number of objects interact in a weak and
 INTRODUCING PROCESS AND FORM 23

haphazard way. An example is a gas in a jar. systems will change over long periods is beset with
This system might comprise upward of 1023 difficulties. Stanley A. Schumm (1985, 1991) tried
molecules colliding with each other. In the to resolve the scale problem, and in doing so
same way, the countless individual particles established some links between process and
in a hillslope mantle could be regarded as a historical studies (p. 8).
complex but rather disorganized system. In
both the gas and the hillslope mantle, the
System dynamics: stasis
interactions are somewhat haphazard and far
and change
too numerous to study individually, so aggre-
gate measures must be employed (see Huggett The adoption by process geomorphologists of a
1985, 74–7; Scheidegger 1991, 251–8). systems approach has provided a common
3. In a third and later conception of systems, language and a theoretical basis for discussing
objects are seen to interact strongly with one static and changing conditions in geomorphic
another to form systems of a complex and systems. It is helpful to explore the matter by
organized nature. Most biological and eco- considering how a geomorphic system responds to
logical systems are of this kind. Many structures a disturbance or a change in driving force (a
in geomorphology display high degrees of perturbation), such as a change in stream discharge.
regularity and rich connections, and may be Table 2.1 shows some common perturbers of
thought of as complexly organized systems. A geomorphic systems and their characteristics.
hillslope represented as a process–form system Discussion of responses to disturbances in the
could be placed into this category. Other geomorphological literature tends to revolve
examples include soils, rivers, and beaches. around the notion of equilibrium, which has a
long and involved history. In simple terms,
equilibrium is ‘a condition in which some kind of
System hierarchy: the scale
balance is maintained’ (Chorley and Kennedy
problem
1971, 348), but it is a complex concept, its com-
A big problem faced by geomorphologists is that, plexity lying in the multiplicity of equilibrium
as the size of geomorphic systems increases, the patterns and the fact that not all components of
explanations of their behaviour may change. a system need be in balance at the same time for
Take the case of a fluvial system. The form and some form of equilibrium to obtain. The more
function of a larger-scale drainage network require recently introduced ideas of disequilibrium
a different explanation from a smaller-scale (moving towards a stable end state, but not yet
meandering river within the network, and an even there) and non-equilibrium (not moving towards
smaller-scale point bar along the meander requires any particular stable or steady state) add another
a different explanation again. The process could dimension to the debate.
carry on down through bedforms on the point bar,
to the position and nature of individual sediment Equilibrium
grains within the bedforms (cf. Schumm 1985a; Figure 2.4 shows eight conditions of equilibrium
1991, 49). A similar problem applies to the time (a–h). Thermodynamic equilibrium is the tend-
dimension. Geomorphic systems may be studied ency towards maximum entropy, as demanded
in action today. Such studies are short-term, by the second law of thermodynamics. In geo-
lasting for a few years or decades. Yet geomorphic morphology, such a tendency would lead to a
systems have a history that goes back centuries, continuous and gradual reduction of energy
millennia, or millions of years. Using the results gradients (slopes) and an attendant lessening of
of short-term studies to explain how geomorphic the rates of geomorphic processes. A featureless
24 INTRODUCING LANDFORMS AND LANDSCAPES

Table 2.1 Disturbance characteristics for selected geomorphic disturbances

Characteristics

Frequency Magnitude Duration Spatial Speed of Spatial Temporal

extent onset dispersion spacing
Disturbing agency
Fire
Frequent to Low to Short Moderate to Diffuse Random Rapid
rare moderate extensive
Drought
Frequent to Low to Short to Extensive Slow Diffuse Random to
rare moderate moderate cyclical
Volcanic eruption
Rare Low to Short Local to Rapid Concentrated Random
extreme extensive
Eustatic sea-level change
Rare Moderate to Long Extensive to Slow Diffuse Cyclical
extreme global
Subsidence
Rare to Low to high Short to Local to Slow to Moderate to Random
moderate moderate moderate rapid concentrated
Mining
Singular Extreme Short to Local Rapid Concentrated Singular
moderate

Source: Adapted from Gares et al. (1994) and Phillips (2009)

plain would be in a state of thermodynamic old equilibrium state towards a new one. If the
equilibrium, but virtually all landscapes are far disturbance persists or grows, perhaps through
removed from such an extreme state. positive feedback processes, it may lead to
Several forms of equilibrium occur where disequilibrium or non-equilibrium. A simple
landforms or geomorphic processes do not change example would a boulder perched atop a hill; a
and maintain static or stationary states. Static force sufficient to dislodge the boulder would lead
equilibrium is the condition where an object has to its rolling downslope.
forces acting upon it but it does not move because In another common form of equilibrium, a
the forces balance. Examples are a boulder resting geomorphic system self-maintains a constant form
on a slope and a stream that has cut down to its or steady state in the face of all but the largest
base level, so preventing further entrenchment. perturbations. An example is a concavo-convex
Stable equilibrium is the tendency of a system to hillslope profile typical of humid climates with a
return to its original state after experiencing a concave lower portion and a convex upper slope,
small perturbation, as when a sand grain at the where erosion, deposition, and mass movement
base of a depression is rolled a little by a gust of continue to operate, and the basic slope form stays
wind but rolls back when the wind drops. Negative the same. Such steady-state equilibrium occurs
feedback processes may lead to the process of when numerous small-scale fluctuations occur
restoration. Unstable equilibrium occurs when a about a mean stable state. The notion of steady
small perturbation forces a system away from its state is perhaps the least controversial of systems
 INTRODUCING PROCESS AND FORM 25

concepts in physical geography. Any open system in its parts, but material or energy continually
may eventually attain time-independent equilib- passes through it. As a rule, steady states are
rium state – a steady state – in which the system irreversible. Before arriving at a steady state, the
and its parts are unchanging, with maximum system will pass through a transient state (a sort
entropy and minimum free energy. In such a of start-up or warm-up period). For instance, the
steady state, a system stays constant as a whole and amount of water in a lake could remain steady

Figure 2.4 Types of equilibrium in geomorphology. Source: Adapted from Chorley and Kennedy
(1971, 202) and Renwick (1992)
26 INTRODUCING LANDFORMS AND LANDSCAPES

because gains of water (incoming river water From the 1960s onward, some geomorph-
and precipitation) balance losses through river ologists began questioning simplistic notions of
outflow, groundwater seepage, and evaporation. equilibrium and steady state. In 1965, Alan D.
If the lake started empty, then its filling up would Howard noted that geomorphic systems might
be a transient state. Dynamic equilibrium is a possess thresholds (Box 2.3) that separate two
disputatious term and discussed in Box 2.2. rather different system economies. Schumm

Box 2.2 DYNAMIC EQUILIBRIUM

Chemists first used the expression dynamic equilibrium to mean equilibrium between
a solid and a solute maintained by solutional loss from the solid and precipitation from
the solution running at equal rates. The word equilibrium captured that balance and the
word dynamic captured the idea that, despite the equilibrium state, changes take place.
In other words, the situation is a dynamic, and not a static, equilibrium. Grove Karl Gilbert
(1877) possibly first applied the term in this sense in a geomorphic context. He suggested
that all streams work towards a graded condition, and attain a state of dynamic
equilibrium when the net effect of the flowing water is neither the erosion of the bed
nor the deposition of sediment, in which situation the landscape then reflects a balance
between force and resistance. Applied to any landform, dynamic equilibrium would
represent a state of balance in a changing situation. Thus, a spit may appear to be
unchanging, although deposition feeds it from its landward end, and erosion consumes
it at its seaward end.
John T. Hack (1960) developed Gilbert’s ideas, arguing that a landscape should attain
a steady state, a condition in which land-surface form does not change despite material
being added by tectonic uplift and removed by a constant set of geomorphic processes.
He contended that, in an erosional landscape, dynamic equilibrium prevails where all
slopes, both hillslopes and river slopes, are adjusted to each other (cf. Gilbert 1877, 123–4;
Hack 1960, 81), and ‘the forms and processes are in a steady state of balance and may
be considered as time independent’ (Hack 1960, 85). In practice, this notion of dynamic
equilibrium was open to question (e.g. Ollier 1968) and difficult to apply to landscapes.
Other geomorphologists have used the term dynamic equilibrium to mean ‘balanced
fluctuations about a constantly changing system condition which has a trajectory of
unrepeated states through time’ (Chorley and Kennedy 1971, 203), which is similar to
Alfred J. Lotka’s (1924) idea of moving equilibrium (cf. Ollier 1968, 1981, 302–4).
Currently then, dynamic equilibrium in physical geography is synonymous with a
‘steady state’ or with a misleading state, where the system appears to be in equilibrium
but in reality is changing extremely sluggishly. Thus, the term has been a replacement
for such concepts as grade (p. 211). Problems with the concept relate to the application
of a microscale phenomenon in physics to macroscale geomorphic systems, and to the
difficulty of separating any observed fluctuations from a theoretical underlying trend
(Thorn and Welford 1994). On balance, it is perhaps better for physical geographers to
abandon the notion of dynamic equilibrium, and indeed some of the other brands of
equilibrium, and instead adopt the terminology of non-linear dynamics.
 INTRODUCING PROCESS AND FORM 27

Plate 2.1 The terraced landscape around Douglas Creek, Wyoming, USA. The photo was taken from a
bluff along the west side looking northeast. The abandoned channel that turns right near the left side of
the photo is the 1961 surface. On the right side of the channel is a crescent-shaped terrace with saltcedars
dated to 1937. The unvegetated, near-vertical bluff line in the centre right of the photo leads up to the 1900
surface. The valley floor steps up gently to the east to the 1882 surface. (Photograph by Ray Womack)

(1973, 1977) introduced the notions of metastable times. Douglas Creek in western Colorado, USA,
equilibrium and dynamic metastable equilibrium, was subject to overgrazing during the ‘cowboy
showing that thresholds within a fluvial system era’ and, since about 1882, it has cut into its
cause a shift in its mean state. The thresholds, channel bed (Plate 2.1; Womack and Schumm
which may be intrinsic or extrinsic, are not part 1977). The manner of cutting has been complex,
of a change continuum, but show up as dramatic with discontinuous episodes of downcutting
changes resulting from minor shifts in system interrupted by phases of deposition, and with the
dynamics, such as caused by a small disturbance. erosion–deposition sequence varying from one
In metastable equilibrium, static states episodic- cross-section to another. Trees have been used to
ally shift when thresholds are crossed. It involves date terraces at several locations. The terraces are
a stable equilibrium acted upon by some form of unpaired (p. 227), which is not what would be
incremental change (a trigger mechanism) that expected from a classic case of river incision, and
drives the system over a threshold into a new they are discontinuous in a downstream direction.
equilibrium state. A stream, for instance, if forced This kind of study serves to dispel forever the
away from a steady state, will adjust to the change, simplistic cause-and-effect view of landscape
although the nature of the adjustment may vary evolution in which change is seen as a simple
in different parts of the stream and at different response to an altered input. It shows that
28 INTRODUCING LANDFORMS AND LANDSCAPES

landscape dynamics may involve abrupt and and chaos (Box 2.5) in geomorphology, which
discontinuous behaviour involving flips between deal with non-equilibrium as well as equilibrium
quasi-stable states as system thresholds are crossed. states (see Huggett 2007).
In dynamic metastable equilibrium, thresholds
trigger episodic changes in states of dynamic Non-equilibrium
equilibrium (dynamic equilibrium meaning here Figure 2.4 also shows four types of non-
a trending mean state). So, dynamic metastable equilibrium (not tending towards any particular
equilibrium is a combination of dynamic and stable or steady state), which range from a system
metastable equilibria, in which large jumps across lurching from one state to another in response to
thresholds break in upon small-scale fluctuations episodic threshold events, through a continuous
about a moving mean. For this reason, dynamic change of state driven by positive feedback and
metastable equilibrium is really a form of dis- threshold-dominated abrupt changes of state, to
equilibrium as a progressive change of the mean a fully chaotic sequence of state changes. These
state occurs (Renwick 1992). non-equilibrium interpretations of response in
The seminal idea of thresholds led eventually geomorphic systems come from the field of
to applications of bifurcation theory (Box 2.4) dynamic systems theory, which embraces the

Box 2.3 THRESHOLDS

A threshold separates different states of a system. It marks some kind of transition in

the behaviour, operation, or state of a system. Everyday examples abound. Water in a
boiling kettle crosses a temperature threshold in changing from a liquid to a gas.
Similarly, ice taken out of a refrigerator and placed upon a table in a room with an air
temperature of 10°C will melt because a temperature threshold has been crossed. In both
examples, the huge differences in state – liquid water to water vapour, and solid water
to liquid water – may result from tiny changes of temperature. Many geomorphic
processes operate only after the crossing of a threshold. Landslides, for instance, require
a critical slope angle, all other factors being constant, before they occur. Stanley A.
Schumm (1979) made a powerful distinction between external and internal system
thresholds. A geomorphic system will not cross an external threshold unless forced to
do so by a change in an external variable. A prime example is the response of a
geomorphic system to climatic change. Climate is the external variable. If, say, runoff
were to increase beyond a critical level, then the geomorphic system might suddenly
respond by reorganizing itself into a new state. No change in an external variable is
required for a geomorphic system to cross an internal threshold. Rather, some chance
fluctuation in an internal variable within a geomorphic system may take a system across
an internal threshold and lead to its reorganization. This appears to happen in some river
channels where an initial disturbance by, say, overgrazing in the river catchment triggers
a complex response in the river channel: a complicated pattern of erosion and deposition
occurs with phases of alluviation and downcutting taking place concurrently in different
parts of the channel system (see p. 27).
 INTRODUCING PROCESS AND FORM 29

Box 2.4 BIFURCATION THEORY AND GEOMORPHIC

SYSTEMS

Some geomorphologists applied bifurcation theory to geomorphic systems in the late

1970s and early 1980s. They based their arguments on catastrophe theory, which is a
special branch of bifurcation theory developed by René Thom (1975), and tried to use
Thom’s ideas (his cusp catastrophe proved a favourite) to explain certain processes at
the Earth’s surface. An example is John Thornes’s (1983) model of sediment transport
in a river, in which a three-dimensional surface defines the equilibrium value of sediment
load (the response variable) in relation to stream power (control variable 1 or the splitting
parameter) and the ratio of sediment sorting to sediment size (control variable 2 or the
normal parameter) (Figure 2.5). For low values of the sorting–size ratio, the equilibrium
surface is a single, smooth curve; beyond the point where the surface splits (point A in
the diagram) and becomes complex, three equilibria points exist, the middle of which
is unstable. After the splitting point, the system jumps from one of the equilibrium states
to another – the transition is not smooth. The model suggests that for mixed sediments
of relatively small mean size, the equilibrium sediment load is a smooth function of stream
power, but that larger and better sorted sediments are entrained in a discontinuous
manner, the sediment load of the rising and falling limbs of a hydrograph being very
different.
The cusp catastrophe model still has some currency, being used, for example, to
explain the instability of a slip-buckling landslide, where a translational slip of rock
layers leads to buckling of rock slabs near the slope base (Qin et al. 2001).

buzzwords complexity and chaos. The argument Reaction, relaxation, resistance,

runs that steady states in the landscape may be rare resilience, and recursion
because landscapes are inherently unstable. This In many geomorphic systems, change in system
is because any process that reinforces itself keeps form trails behind a change in input (a disturb-
the system changing through a positive feedback ance). This lag is the time taken for some
circuit and readily disrupts any balance obtaining mechanism to react to the changed input and is
in a steady state. The ‘instability principle’, which called the reaction time (Figure 2.6a). In the case
recognizes that, in many landscapes, accidental of river bedload, particles will not react to
deviations from a ‘balanced’ condition tend to be increased discharge until a critical shear stress is
self-reinforcing, formalizes this idea (Scheidegger applied. In other words, a system response requires
1983). It explains why cirques tend to grow, sink- the crossing of a threshold. Another reason for a
holes increase in size, and longitudinal mountain lag between a changed input and a change in form
valley profiles become stepped. The intrinsic is that the input and the form response are
instability of landscapes is borne out by math- separated geographically. A case in point is
ematical analyses that point to the chaotic nature pyroclastic material ejected from a volcanic vent,
of much landscape change (e.g. Phillips 1999; which cannot change the elevation of the land
Scheidegger 1994). surface surrounding the volcano until it has
30 INTRODUCING LANDFORMS AND LANDSCAPES

Figure 2.5 A cusp catastrophe model applied to sediment transport in a river. Source: Adapted from
Thornes (1983)

Box 2.5 CHAOS

Early ideas on complex dynamics and non-equilibrium within systems found a firm
theoretical footing with the theory of nonlinear dynamics and chaotic systems that
scientists from a range of disciplines developed, including geomorphology itself. Classical
open systems research characteristically dealt with linear relationships in systems near
equilibrium. A fresh direction in thought and a deeper understanding came with the
discovery of deterministic chaos by Edward Lorenz in 1963. The key change was the
recognition of nonlinear relationships in systems. In geomorphology, nonlinearity means
that system outputs (or responses) are not proportional to system inputs (or forcings)
across the full gamut of inputs (cf. Phillips 2006).
Nonlinear relationships produce rich and complex dynamics in systems far removed
from equilibrium, which display periodic and chaotic behaviour. The most surprising
feature of such systems is the generation of ‘order out of chaos’, with systems states

continued . . .
 INTRODUCING PROCESS AND FORM 31

Box 2.5 continued

unexpectedly moving to higher levels of organization under the driving power of internal
entropy production and entropy dissipation. Systems of this kind, which dissipate energy
in maintaining order in states removed from equilibrium, are dissipative systems. The
theory of complex dynamics predicts a new order of order, an order arising out of, and
poised perilously at the edge of, chaos. It is a fractal order that evolves to form a
hierarchy of spatial systems whose properties are holistic and irreducible to the laws of
physics and chemistry. Geomorphic examples are flat or irregular beds of sand on
streambeds or in deserts that self-organize themselves into regularly spaced forms –
ripples and dunes – that are rather similar in size and shape (e.g. Baas 2002; see Murray
et al. 2009 for other examples). Conversely, some systems display the opposite tendency
– that of non-self-organization – as when relief reduces to a plain. A central implication
of chaotic dynamics for the natural world is that all Nature may contain fundamentally
erratic, discontinuous, and inherently unpredictable elements. Nonetheless, nonlinear
Nature is not all complex and chaotic. Phillips (2006) astutely noted that ‘Nonlinear
systems are not all, or always, complex, and even those which can be chaotic are not
chaotic under all circumstances. Conversely, complexity can arise due to factors other
than nonlinear dynamics’.
Phillips (2006) suggested ways of detecting chaos in geomorphic systems. He argued
that convergence versus divergence of a suitable system descriptor (elevation or regolith
thickness, for instance) is an immensely significant indicator of stability behaviour in a
geomorphic system. In landscape evolution, convergence associates with downwasting
and a reduction of relief, while divergence relates to dissection and an increase of relief.
More fundamentally, convergence and divergence underpin developmental, ‘equilibrium’
conceptual frameworks, with a monotonic move to a unique endpoint (peneplain or other
steady-state landform), as well as evolutionary, ‘non-equilibrium’ frameworks that
engender historical happenstance, multiple potential pathways and end-states, and
unstable states. The distinction between instability and new equilibria is critical to
understanding the dynamics of actual geomorphic systems, and for a given scale of
observation or investigation, it separates two conditions. On the one hand sits a new
steady-state equilibrium governed by stable equilibrium dynamics that develops after a
change in boundary conditions or in external forcings. On the other hand sits a persistence
of the disproportionate impacts of small disturbances associated with dynamic instability
in a non-equilibrium system (or a system governed by unstable equilibrium dynamics)
(Phillips 2006). The distinction is critical because the establishment of a new steady-state
equilibrium implies a consistent and predictable response throughout the system,
predictable in the sense that the same changes in boundary conditions affecting the same
system at a different place or time would produce the same outcome. In contrast, a
dynamically unstable system possesses variable modes of system adjustment and
inconsistent responses, with different outcomes possible for identical or similar changes
or disturbances.
32 INTRODUCING LANDFORMS AND LANDSCAPES

travelled through the atmosphere. It is common The ‘strength’ of a system is measurable as literal
in geomorphic systems for system form to be strength (as in shear strength), chemical or mech-
unable to keep pace with a change in input, which anical stability (as in mineral stability, hardness,
delays the attainment of a new equilibrium cohesion), or susceptibility to modification (as in
state irrespective of any reaction-time effects soil erodibility). These must be compared to some
(Figure 2.6b). The time taken for the system to measure related to the magnitude of the drivers
adjust to the changed input is the relaxation time. of change. For instance, the ratio of shear strength
Geomorphic systems may possess reaction times to shear stress ratio is used in assessing slope
and relaxation times, which combine to give the stability (p. 66). A geomorphic system may also
system response time. In summary, the reaction resist changes to inputs by absorbing them, and
time is the time needed for a system to start the ability to do so depends on the system’s
responding to a changed input and the relaxation ‘capacity’. So, what happens to sediment delivered
time is the time taken for the system to complete to a channel by a landslide or by soil erosion from
the response. fields will depend in part on the sediment trans-
Resistance is the ability of a geomorphic system port capacity of the stream: if the stream has a
to avoid or to lessen responses to driving forces. low transport capacity, then the sediment will
It has two components – strength and capacity. accumulate; if it has a high transport capacity then
it will be removed. Resilience is the ability of a
system to recover towards its state before disturb-
ance. It is a direct function of the dynamical
stability of the system. A geomorphic system in a
steady state will display resilience within certain
bounds. Recursion involves the changes in the
system following a disturbance feeding back
upon themselves. Recursive feedbacks may be
positive, reinforcing and thus perpetuating or even
accelerating the change, or negative, slowing or
even negating the change (p. 22).

Magnitude and frequency

Interesting debates centre on the variations in
process rates through time. The ‘tame’ end of this
debate concerns arguments over magnitude and
frequency (Box 2.6), the pertinent question here
being which events perform the most geomorphic
work: small and infrequent events, medium and
moderately frequent events, or big but rare events?
The first work on this issue concluded, albeit
provisionally until further field work was carried
out, that events occurring once or twice a year
perform most geomorphic work (Wolman and
Miller 1960). Some later work has highlighted the
Figure 2.6 (a) Reaction time and (b) relaxation geomorphic significance of rare events. Large-
time in geomorphic systems. scale anomalies in atmospheric circulation systems
 INTRODUCING PROCESS AND FORM 33

very occasionally produce short-lived superfloods Gradualists claim that process rates have been
that have long-term effects on landscapes (Baker uniform in the past, not varying much beyond
1977, 1983; Partridge and Baker 1987). Another their present levels. Catastrophists make the
study revealed that low-frequency, high- counterclaim that the rates of geomorphic pro-
magnitude events greatly affect stream channels cesses have differed in the past, and on occasions,
(Gupta 1983). The ‘wilder’ end of the debate some of them have acted with suddenness and
engages hot arguments over gradualism and extreme violence, pointing to the effects of massive
catastrophism (Huggett 1989, 1997a, 2006). The volcanic explosions, the impacts of asteroids and
crux of the gradualist–catastrophist debate is the comets, and the landsliding of whole mountain-
seemingly innocuous question: have the present sides into the sea. The dichotomy between
rates of geomorphic processes remained much gradualists and catastrophists polarizes the
the same throughout Earth surface history? spectrum of possible rates of change. It suggests

Box 2.6 MAGNITUDE AND FREQUENCY

As a rule of thumb, bigger floods, stronger winds, higher waves, and so forth occur less
often than their smaller, weaker, and lower counterparts do. Indeed, graphs showing
the relationship between the frequency and magnitude of many geomorphic processes
are right skewed, which means that a lot of low-magnitude events occur in comparison
with the smaller number of high-magnitude events, and very few very high magnitude
events. The frequency with which an event of a specific magnitude occurs is the return
period or recurrence interval, which is calculated as the average length of time between
events of a given magnitude. Take the case of river floods. Observations may produce
a dataset comprising the maximum discharge for each year over a period of years. To
compute the flood–frequency relationships, the peak discharges are listed according to
magnitude, with the highest discharge first. The recurrence interval is then calculated
using the equation

n+1
T = _____
m
where T is the recurrence interval, n is the number of years of record, and m is the
magnitude of the flood (with m = 1 at the highest recorded discharge). Each flood is then
plotted against its recurrence interval on Gumbel graph paper and the points connected
to form a frequency curve. If a flood of a particular magnitude has a recurrence interval
of 10 years, it would mean that there is a 1-in-10 (10 per cent) chance that a flood of this
magnitude (2,435 cumecs in the Wabash River example shown in Figure 2.7) will occur
in any year. It also means that, on average, one such flood will occur every 10 years.
The magnitudes of 5-year, 10-year, 25-year, and 50-year floods are helpful for engineering
work, flood control, and flood alleviation. The 2.33-year flood (Q2.33) is the mean annual
flood (1,473 cumecs in the example), the 2.0-year flood (Q2.0) is the median annual flood
(not shown), and the 1.58-year flood (Q1.58) is the most probable flood (1,133 cumecs in
the example).
34 INTRODUCING LANDFORMS AND LANDSCAPES

Figure 2.7 Magnitude–frequency plot of annual floods on the Wabash River, at Lafayette, Indiana, USA.
See text for details. Source: Adapted from Dury (1969)

that there is either gradual and gentle change, or geomorphologist. It is an attempt to describe,
else abrupt and violent change. In fact, all grades analyse, simplify, or display a geomorphic system
between these two extremes, and combinations of (cf. Strahler 1980).
gentle and violent processes, are conceivable. It Geomorphologists, like all scientists, build
seems reasonable to suggest that land-surface models at different levels of abstraction (Figure
history has involved a combination of gentle and 2.8). The simplest level involves a change of scale.
violent processes. In this case, a hardware model represents the
system (see Mosley and Zimpfer 1978). There are
two chief kinds of hardware model: scale models
GEOMORPHIC MODELS
and analogue models. Scale (or iconic) models
In trying to single out the components and are miniature, or sometimes gigantic, copies of
interrelations of geomorphic systems, some degree systems. They differ from the systems they
of abstraction or simplification is necessary: the represent only in size. Relief models, fashioned out
landscape is too rich a mix of objects and inter- of a suitable material such as plaster of Paris, have
actions to account for all components and rela- been used to represent topography as a three-
tionships in them. The process of simplifying real dimensional surface. Scale models need not be
landscapes to manageable proportions is model static: models made using materials identical to
building. Defined in a general way, a geomorphic those found in Nature, but with the dimensions
model is a simplified representation of some aspect of the system scaled down, can be used to simulate
of a real landscape that happens to interest a dynamic behaviour. In practice, scale models of
 INTRODUCING PROCESS AND FORM 35

this kind imitate a portion of the real world so

closely that they are, in effect, ‘controlled’ natural
systems. An example is Stanley A. Schumm’s
(1956) use of the badlands at Perth Amboy, New
Jersey, to study the evolution of slopes and
drainage basins. The great advantage of this type
of scale model, in which the geometry and
dynamics of the model and system are virtually
identical, is that the investigator wields a high
degree of control over the simplified experimental Figure 2.8 Types of model in geomorphology.
conditions. Other scale models use natural mater- Source: After Huggett (1993, 4)
ials, but the geometry of the model is dissimilar
to the geometry of the system it imitates – the models. Dynamic analogue models may also be
investigator scales down the size of the system. The built. They are hardware models in which the
process of reducing the size of a system may create system size is changed, and in which the materials
a number of awkward problems associated with used are analogous to, but not the same as, the
scaling. For instance, a model of the Severn estuary natural materials of the system. The analogous
made at a scale of 1 : 10,000 can easily preserve materials simulate the dynamics of the real system.
geometrical and topographical relationships. In a laboratory, the clay kaolin can be used in
However, when adding water, an actual depth of place of ice to model the behaviour of a valley
water of, say, 7 m is represented in the model by glacier. Under carefully controlled conditions,
a layer of water less than 0.7 mm deep. In such a many features of valley glaciers, including
thin layer of water, surface tensions will cause crevasses and step faults, develop in the clay.
enormous problems, and it will be impossible to Difficulties arise in this kind of analogue model,
simulate tidal range and currents. Equally, material not the least of which is the problem of finding a
scaled down to represent sand in the real system material that has mechanical properties compar-
would be so tiny that most of it would float. These able to the material in the natural system. How-
problems of scaling are usually surmountable, to ever, they can prove a very useful tool, for example
a certain extent at least, and scale models are used in studying long-term landscape development
to mimic the behaviour of a variety of geomorphic (Plate 2.3).
systems. For example, scale models have assisted Conceptual models are initial attempts to
studies of the dynamics of rivers and river systems clarify loose thoughts about the structure and
using waterproof troughs and flumes, and aided function of a geomorphic system. They often form
studies of talus slopes (Plate 2.2). the basis for the construction of mathematical
Analogue models are more abstract scale models. Mathematical models translate the ideas
models. The most commonly used analogue encapsulated in a conceptual model into the
models are maps and remotely sensed images. On formal, symbolic logic of mathematics. The
a map, the surface features of a landscape are language of mathematics offers a powerful tool of
reduced in scale and represented by symbols: rivers investigation limited only by the creativity of the
by lines, relief by contours, and spot heights by human mind. Of all modes of argument, math-
points, for instance. Remotely sensed images ematics is the most rigorous. Nonetheless, the act
represent, at a reduced scale, certain properties of quantification, of translating ideas and observa-
of the landscape systems. Maps and remotely tions into symbols and numbers, is in itself
sensed images are, except where a series of them nothing unless validated by explanation and pre-
is available for different times, static analogue diction. The art and science of using mathematics
36 INTRODUCING LANDFORMS AND LANDSCAPES
 INTRODUCING PROCESS AND FORM 37

Plate 2.2 (left) An analogue model simulating talus development (De Blasio and Sæter 2009). The model
used a 1.5-m-long board sloping at 37.5° (a tad lower than the angle of repose of the rocky material) and
bolted to a frame of aluminium and steel. Compacted angular grains were glued to the board with epoxy
to increase the friction angle and avoid particle slippage against the base. Grains of basalt in five size classes
(each a different colour), were dropped from a suspended plate at the top of the slope. The ratio between
table length and maximum particle size was about a hundred, which agrees with the ratio of talus length
to maximum boulder diameter in the field. At the start of the experiment, the grains developed a gradation
along the slope similar to the gradation found on natural talus slopes, where small grains settle at the top
and large grains roll downwards to the bottom section. However, after a transient period dominated by
single-particle dynamics on the inert granular medium, the talus evolution was more variable than
expected. Owing to the continuous shower of falling grains, the shear stress at the bottom of the upper
granular layer increased, so initially producing a slow creep downslope that finally collapsed in large
avalanches and homogenizing the material. (Photographs by Fabio De Blasio)

Plate 2.3 An analogue model for simulating long-term landform evolution with uplift and variable rainfall
rate (Bonnet and Crave 2003). The model used a paste of pure silica grains (mean grain size of 0.02 mm)
mixed with water, the content of which ensured that the paste had a vertical angle of rest and that water
infiltration was negligible. The paste was placed in a box with a vertically adjustable base, the movements
of which were driven by a screw and a computer-controlled stepping motor. During an experimental run,
uplift was simulated by raising the base of the box at a constant rate, so pushing out the paste from the
top of the box. Precipitation was generated by a system of four sprinklers. These delivered water droplets
with a diameter of approximately 0.01 mm, which was small enough to avoid any splash dispersion at the
surface of the model. The precipitation rate could be controlled by changing the water pressure and
the configuration of the sprinklers. The surface of the model was eroded by running water at its surface
and grain detachment and transport occurred mainly by shear detachment through surface runoff.
(Photographs by Stéphane Bonnet)
38 INTRODUCING LANDFORMS AND LANDSCAPES

to study geomorphic systems is to discover FORM

expressions with explanatory and predictive
powers. These powers set mathematical models The two main approaches to form in geomorph-
apart from conceptual models. An unquantified ology are description (field description and
conceptual model is not susceptible of formal morphological mapping) and mathematical
proof; it is simply a body of ideas. A mathematical representation (geomorphometry).
model, on the other hand, is testable by matching
predictions against the yardstick of observation.
Field description and morphological
By a continual process of mathematical model
mapping
building, model testing, and model redesign, the
understanding of the form and function of The only way fully to appreciate landforms is to
geomorphic systems should advance. go into the field and see them. Much can be learnt
Three chief classes of mathematical model from the now seemingly old-fashioned techniques
assist the study of geomorphic systems: stochastic of field description, field sketching, and map
models, statistical models, and deterministic reading and map making.
models. The first two classes are both probabilistic The mapping of landforms is an art (see
models. Stochastic models have a random com- Dackombe and Gardiner 1983, 13–20, 28–41;
ponent built into them that describes a system, or Evans 1994). Landforms vary enormously in shape
some facet of it, based on probability. Statistical and size. Some, such as karst depressions and
models, like stochastic models, have random volcanoes, may be represented as points. Others,
components. In statistical models, the random such as faults and rivers, are linear features that
components represent unpredictable fluctuations are best depicted as lines. In other cases, areal
in laboratory or field data that may arise from properties may be of prime concern and suitable
measurement error, equation error, or the means of spatial representation must be employed.
inherent variability of the objects being measured. Morphological maps capture areal properties.
A body of inferential statistical theory exists that Morphological mapping attempts to identify
determines the manner in which the data should basic landform units in the field, on aerial
be collected and how relationships between the photographs, or on maps. It sees the ground
data should be managed. Statistical models are, in surface as an assemblage of landform elements.
a sense, second best to deterministic models: they Landform elements are recognized as simply
can be applied only under strictly controlled curved geometric surfaces lacking inflections
conditions, suffer from a number of deficiencies, (complicated kinks) and are considered in rela-
and are perhaps most profitably employed only tion to upslope, downslope, and lateral elements.
when the ‘laws’ determining system form and They go by a plethora of names – facets, sites,
process are poorly understood. Deterministic land elements, terrain components, and facies.
models are conceptual models expressed math- The ‘site’ (Linton 1951) was an elaboration of the
ematically and containing no random com- ‘facet’ (Wooldridge 1932), and involved altitude,
ponents. They are derivable from physical and extent, slope, curvature, ruggedness, and relation
chemical principles without recourse to experi- to the water table. The other terms were coined
ment. It is sound practice, therefore, to test the in the 1960s (see Speight 1974). Figure 2.9 shows
validity of a deterministic model by comparing its the land surface of Longdendale in the Pennines,
predictions with independent observations made England, represented as a morphological map.
in the field or the laboratory. Hillslope models The map combines landform elements derived
based on the conservation of mass are examples from a nine-unit land-surface model (p. 179)
of deterministic models (p. 175). with depictions of deep-seated mass movements
Figure 2.9 Morphological map of Longdendale, north Derbyshire, England. The map portrays units of a nine-unit land-surface model, types of mass
movement, and geological formations. The superficial mass movements are: 1 Mudflow, earthflow, or peat burst; 2 Soil slump; 3 Minor soil slump;
4 Rockfall; 5 Scree; 6 Solifluction lobe; 7 Terracettes; 8 Soil creep or block creep and soliflucted material. The other features are: 9 Incised stream; 10
Rock cliff; 11 Valley-floor alluvial fan. Source: Adapted from Johnson (1980)
40 INTRODUCING LANDFORMS AND LANDSCAPES

and superficial mass movements. Digital eleva- Positioning System (GPS), which made the very
tion models lie within the ambits of landform time-consuming process of making large-scale
morphometry and are dealt with below. They have maps much quicker and more fun.
greatly extended, but by no means replaced, the The spatial form of surface topography is
classic work on landform elements and their modelled in several ways. Digital representations
descriptors as prosecuted by the morphological are referred to as either Digital Elevation Models
mappers. (DEMs) or Digital Terrain Models (DTMs). A
DEM is ‘an ordered array of numbers that
represent the spatial distribution of elevations
Geomorphometry
above some arbitrary datum in a landscape’
A branch of geomorphology – landform morph- (Moore et al. 1991, 4). DTMs are ‘ordered arrays
ometry or geomorphometry – studies quanti- of numbers that represent the spatial distribution
tatively the form of the land surface (see Hengl and of terrain attributes’ (Moore et al. 1991, 4). DEMs
Reuter 2009). Geomorphometry in the modern are, therefore, a subset of DTMs. Topographic
era is traceable to the work of Alexander von elements of a landscape can be computed directly
Humboldt and Carl Ritter in the early and mid- from a DEM (p. 181). Further details of DEMs
nineteenth century (see Pike 1999). It had a strong and their applications are given in several recent
post-war tradition in North America and the books (e.g. Wilson and Gallant 2000; Huggett and
UK, and it has been ‘reinvented’ with the advent Cheesman 2002). Geomorphological applications
of remotely sensed images and Geographical are many and various, including modelling
Information Systems (GIS) software. The contri- geomorphic processes and identifying remnant
butions of geomorphometry to geomorphology inselbergs in northern Sweden (p. 436).
and cognate fields are legion. Geomorphometry
is an important component of terrain analysis and
Remote sensing
surface modelling. Its specific applications include
measuring the morphometry of continental ice Modern digital terrain representations derived
surfaces, characterizing glacial troughs, mapping from remotely sensed data greatly aid the under-
sea-floor terrain types, guiding missiles, assessing standing of Earth surface processes. Applications
soil erosion, analysing wildfire propagation, and of remote sensing to geomorphology (and to the
mapping ecoregions (Pike 1995, 1999). It also environmental sciences in general) fall into four
contributes to engineering, transportation, public periods. Before 1950, the initial applications of
works, and military operations. aerial photography were made. From 1950 to 1970
was a transition period from photographic
applications to unconventional imagery systems
Digital elevation models
(such as thermal infra-red scanners and side-
The resurgence of geomorphometry since the looking airborne radars), and from low-altitude
1970s is in large measure due to two develop- aircraft to satellite platforms. From 1972 to 2000,
ments. First is the light-speed development the application of multispectral scanners and
and use of GIS, which allow input, storage, and radiometer data obtained from operational
manipulation of digital data representing spatial satellite platforms predominated. Since about
and aspatial features of the Earth’s surface. The 2000, a range of new remote sensing techniques
digital representation of topography has probably has led to a proliferation of information on terrain.
attracted greater attention than that of any Raw elevation data for DEMs are derivable
other surface feature. Second is the development from photogrammetric methods, including stereo
of Electronic Distance Measurement (EDM) aerial photographs, satellite imagery, and airborne
in surveying and, more recently, the Global laser interferometry, or from field surveys using
 INTRODUCING PROCESS AND FORM 41

GPS or total stations (a total station is an electronic SUMMARY

theodolite integrated with an electronic distance
meter that reads distances from the instrument to Geomorphologists commonly use a systems
a particular point; it is usually linked to a data- approach to their subject. Form systems, flow
logger and automated mapping software). If stereo or cascading systems, process–form or process–
aerial photographs and satellite images are the response systems, and control systems are all
sources for elevation data, there will be a complete recognized. Hugely important are ideas about
coverage of the landscape at the resolution of the stasis and change, with equilibrium and non-
image or photographs. An advantage of using equilibrium views providing a focus for much
satellite images is that they are already in digital debate. Non-equilibrium views grew from notions
format. Airborne laser interferometry uses of complexity and chaos. The language of systems
scanners to provide high-resolution surface concepts employs such terms as negative feedback
measurements. An example is Light Detection and positive feedback, reaction, relaxation,
And Ranging (LiDAR). Although LiDAR is a thresholds, and magnitude and frequency. Great
relatively young and complex technology, it pro- achievements using systems-based arguments
vides a technique that is accurate, that is suitable include notions of stability, instability, and
for areas of rugged and difficult terrain, and thresholds in landscapes, the last two of which
that is increasingly affordable. LiDAR works by belie simplistic ideas on cause and effect in
measuring the laser-pulse travel time from a landscape evolution. Magnitude and frequency
transmitter to a target and back to the receiver. studies have led to unexpected results: at first,
The laser pulse travels at the speed of light, so geomorphologists believed that medium-
very accurate timing is required to obtain fine magnitude and medium-frequency events did the
vertical resolutions. As the aircraft flies over an greatest geomorphic work, but some studies now
area, a scanning mirror directs the laser pulses suggest that rare events such as immense floods
back and forth across-track. The collected data is may have long-lasting effects on landforms.
a set of points arranged across the flight-line. The Geomorphic models are exceedingly useful tools.
combination of multiple flight-line data provides Scale and analogue hardware models, conceptual
coverage for an area. An extremely useful charac- models, and mathematical models all play a
teristic of LiDAR is its ability to penetrate the role in the advancement of geomorphological
vegetation canopy and map the ground beneath. understanding. Geomorphic form is describable
Terrestrial Laser Scanner (TLS) and Airborne by morphological maps and, more recently, by
Laser Swath Mapping (ALSM) technology, using geomorphometry. Geomorphometry today uses
LiDAR technology, now provide high-resolution digital elevation models, remote sensing, and GIS
topographic data with advantages over traditional and is a sophisticated discipline.
survey techniques, including the capability of
producing sub-metre resolution DTMs, and high- ESSAY QUESTIONS
quality land-cover information (Digital Surface
Models or DSMs) over large areas (Tarolli 1 Discuss the pros and cons of a ‘systems
et al. 2009). New topographic data has aided approach’ in geomorphology.
geomorphic studies, including the analysis of 2 Explain the different types of equilibrium
land-surface form, landsliding, channel network and non-equilibrium recognized in geo-
structure, river morphology and bathymetry, the morphic systems.
recognition of palaeosurfaces, and tectonics
(Figure 2.10). Figure 2.11 shows the current spatial 3 To what extent have remote sensing and
and temporal resolution of satellite sensors for GIS revolutionized geomorphology?
geomorphic studies.
42 INTRODUCING LANDFORMS AND LANDSCAPES

Figure 2.10 Airborne altimetry data: perspective shaded relief images of Gabilan Mesa (top) and Oregon Coast
Range (bottom) study sites using high-resolution topographic data acquired via airborne laser altimetry. Steep, nearly
planar slopes of the Oregon Coast Range contrast with the broad, convex Gabilan Mesa slopes. Source: After
Roering et al. (2007)
 INTRODUCING PROCESS AND FORM 43

Figure 2.11 Constraints of spatial and temporal resolutions of satellite sensors on geomorphic studies.
Source: Adapted from Millington and Townshend (1987) and Smith and Pain (2009)

FURTHER READING Goudie, A. (1995) The Changing Earth: Rates of

Geomorphological Processes. Oxford and
Allen, P. A. (1997) Earth Surface Processes. Oxford: Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell.
Blackwell Science. A good survey of spatial and temporal variations
An outstanding account of geomorphic processes. in the rates at which geomorphic processes
Butler, D. R. (1995) Zoogeomorphology: Animals as operate.
Geomorphic Agents. Cambridge: Cambridge Ritter, D. F., Kochel, R. C., and Miller, J. R. (1995)
University Press. Process Geomorphology, 3rd edn. Dubuque, Ill.,
An engaging account of the role of animals in and London: William C. Brown.
landscape development. A good, well-illustrated, basic text with a
fondness for North American examples.
Goudie, A. S. (ed.) (1994) Geomorphological
Techniques, 2nd edn. London and New York: Stoddart, D. R. (ed.) (1997) Process and Form in
Routledge. Geomorphology. London: Routledge.
Covers the topics not covered by the present book This book will give the flavour of process
– how geomorphologists measure form and geomorphology and more.
process.
3
CHAPTER THREE

INTRODUCING
HISTORY

The Earth’s surface has a history that leaves traces in present-day landscapes and
sediments. These traces make possible the partial reconstruction of long-term landscape
change. This chapter introduces:

• Reconstruction of land-surface history

• Vestiges of past landscapes
• Unforeseen events and geomorphic systems

RECONSTRUCTING mid-latitude ice cores, coral deposits, loess, ocean

GEOMORPHIC HISTORY cores, pollen, palaeosols, sedimentary rocks, and
historical records (see Huggett 1997b, 8–21).
The problem with measuring geomorphic pro- Sedimentary deposits are an especially valuable
cesses is that, although it establishes current source of information about past landscapes. In
operative processes and their rates, it does not some cases, geomorphologists may apply the
provide a dependable guide to processes that were principles of stratigraphy to the deposits to
in action a million years ago, ten thousand years establish a relative sequence of events. Colluvium
ago, or even a hundred years ago. In trying to for example, which builds up towards a hillslope
work out the long-term evolution of landforms base, is commonly deposited episodically. The
and landscapes, geomorphologists have three result is that distinct layers are evident in a section,
options open to them – stratigraphic and environ- the upper layers being progressively younger than
mental reconstruction, chronosequence studies, the lower layers. If such techniques as radiocarbon
and numerical modelling. dating or dendrochronology can date these
sediments, then they may provide an absolute
timescale for the past activities on the hillslope, or
Stratigraphic and environmental
at least the past activities that have left traces in
reconstruction
the sedimentary record (Appendix 2). Recognizing
Fortunately for researchers into past landscapes, the origin of the deposits may also be possible –
several archives of past environmental conditions glacial, periglacial, colluvial, or whatever. More-
exist: tree rings, lake sediments, polar ice cores, over, sometimes geomorphologists use techniques
 INTRODUCING HISTORY 45

of environmental reconstruction to establish the archaeological material in the fluvial deposits.

climatic and other environmental conditions at Vita-Finzi found three main deposits of differing
the time of sediment deposition. ages. The oldest contains Palaeolithic imple-
To illustrate the process of stratigraphic and ments and seems to have accumulated during the
environmental reconstruction, take the case of Pleistocene. Rivers cut into it between about 9,000
the river alluvium and colluvium that fills many and 3,000 years ago. The second deposit accumu-
valleys in countries bordering the Mediterranean lated behind dams built by Romans to store water
Sea. Claudio Vita-Finzi (1969) pioneered research and retain sediment. Late in the Empire, flood-
into the origin of the valley fills, concluding that waters breached or found a way around the dams
almost all alluvium and colluvium was laid down and cut into the Roman alluvium. Rivers built up
during two episodes of increased aggradation the third deposit, which contained Roman and
(times when deposition of sediment outstripped earlier material as well as pottery and charcoal
erosion). Figure 3.1 is a schematic reconstruc- placing in the Medieval Period (AD 1200–1500),
tion of the geomorphic history of a valley in within the down-cut wadis. The deposition of this
Tripolitania (western Libya). The key to unlocking Younger Fill was followed by reduced alluviation
the history of the valleys in the area was datable and down-cutting through the fill.

Figure 3.1 A reconstruction of the geomorphic history of a wadi in Tripolitania, western Libya. (a) Original
valley. (b) Deposition of Older Fill. (c) River cut into Older Fill. (d) Roman dams impound silt. (e) Rivers cut
further into Older Fill and Roman alluvium. (f) Deposition of Younger Fill. (g) Present valley and its alluvial
deposits. Source: After Vita-Finzi (1969, 10)
46 INTRODUCING LANDFORMS AND LANDSCAPES

Wider examination of alluvia in Mediterranean procedure is sometimes referred to as space–time

valleys allowed Vita-Finzi to recognize an Older substitution or, using a term borrowed from
Fill dating from the Pleistocene and a Younger Fill physics, ergodicity. Charles Darwin used the
dating from about AD 500–1500. The Older Fill chronosequence method to test his ideas on coral-
was deposited as a substantial body of colluvium reef formation. He thought that barrier reefs,
(slope wash) under a ‘periglacial’ regime during fringing reefs, and atolls occurring at different
the last glacial stage. The Younger Fill was a places represented different evolutionary stages
product of phases of erosion during the later of island development applicable to any subsiding
Roman Imperial times, through the Dark Ages, volcanic peak in tropical waters. William Morris
and to the Middle Ages. Vita-Finzi believed it to Davis applied this evolutionary schema to
be the result of increased erosion associated with landforms in different places and derived what
the climate of the Medieval Warm Period or the he deemed was a time sequence of landform
Little Ice Age, a view supported by John Bintliff development – the geographical cycle – running
(1976, 2002). Other geomorphologists, including from youth, through maturity, to senility. This
Karl Butzer (1980, 2005) and Tjierd van Andel and seductively simple approach is open to misuse.
his co-workers (1986), favoured human activity The temptation is to fit the landforms into some
as the chief cause, pointing to post-medieval preconceived view of landscape change, even
deforestation and agricultural expansion into though other sequences might be constructed. A
marginal environments. The matter is still open study of south-west African landforms since
to debate (see p. 237). Mesozoic times highlights the significance of this
The recent global environmental change problem, where several styles of landscape
agenda has given environmental reconstruction evolution were consistent with the observed
techniques a fillip. Past Global Changes (PAGES) history of the region (Gilchrist et al. 1994). Users
is a core project of the IGBP (International of the method must also be warned that not all
Geosphere–Biosphere Programme). It concen- spatial differences are temporal differences –
trates on two slices of time: (1) the last 2,000 years factors other than time exert a strong influence on
of Earth history, with a temporal resolution of the form of the land surface, and landforms of the
decades, years, and even months; and (2) the last same age might differ through historical accidents.
several hundred thousand years, covering Moreover, it pays to be aware of equifinality, the
glacial–interglacial cycles, in the hope of providing idea that different sets of processes may produce
insights into the processes that induce global the same landform. The converse of this idea is
change (IGBP 1990). Examples of geomorpho- that landform is an unreliable guide to process.
logical contributions to environmental change Given these consequential difficulties, it is best to
over these timescales may be found in the book treat chronosequences circumspectly.
Geomorphology and Global Environmental Change Trustworthy topographic chronosequences
(Slaymaker et al. 2009; see also Slaymaker 2000a). are rare. The best examples normally come from
man-made landscapes, though there are some
landscapes in which, by quirks of history, spatial
Landform chronosequences
differences are translatable into time sequences.
Another option open to the historical geo- Occasionally, field conditions lead to adjacent
morphologist is to find a site where a set of hillslopes being progressively removed from the
landforms differ from place to place and where action of a fluvial or marine process at their bases.
that spatial sequence of landforms may be This has happened along a segment of the South
interpreted as a time sequence. Such sequences Wales coast, in the British Isles, where cliffs have
are called topographic chronosequences, and the formed in Old Red Sandstone (Savigear 1952,
 INTRODUCING HISTORY 47

1956). Originally, the coast between Gilman Point sequence: the cliffs furthest west have been subject
and the Taff estuary was exposed to wave action. to subaerial denudation without waves cutting
A sand spit started to grow. Wind-blown and their base the longest, while those to the east are
marsh deposits accumulated between the spit and progressively younger (Figure 3.2). Slope profiles
the original shoreline, causing the sea progressively along Port Hudson bluff, on the Mississippi
to abandon the cliff base from west to east. The River in Louisiana, southern USA, reveal a
present cliffs are thus a topographic chrono- chronosequence (Brunsden and Kesel 1973).

Figure 3.2 A topographic chronosequence in South Wales. (a) The coast between Gilman Point and the
Taff estuary. The sand spit has grown progressively from west to east so that the cliffs to the west have
been longest-protected from wave action. (b) The general form of the hillslope profiles located on Figure
3.2a. Cliff profiles become progressively older in alphabetical order, A–N. Source: From Huggett (1997b,
238) after Savigear (1952, 1956)
48 INTRODUCING LANDFORMS AND LANDSCAPES

The Mississippi River was undercutting the entire endure for thousands, millions, tens of millions,
bluff segment in 1722. Since then, the channel or hundreds of millions of years. As Arthur L.
has shifted about 3 km downstream with a con- Bloom (2002) put it, just a few very young land-
comitant cessation of undercutting. The changing forms result from currently active geomorphic
conditions at the slope bases have reduced the processes, and because the timescale of landscape
mean slope angle from 40° to 22°. evolution is far longer than the timescale of late
Cenozoic climate changes, nearly all landscapes are
palimpsests, written over repeatedly by various
Numerical modelling
combinations of climate-determined processes.
Mathematical models of landscapes predict what For instance, it is common for a cliff, a floodplain,
happens if a particular combination of slope a cirque, and many other landscape features to
and river processes is allowed to run for millions survive longer than the climatic regime that
of years, given assumptions about the initial created them. Seldom does the erosion promoted
topography, tectonic uplift and subsidence, and by a new climatic regime renew all the landforms
conditions at the boundaries (the removal of in a landscape. Far more commonly, remnants of
sediment, for example). Some geomorphologists past landforms are preserved. Consequently, most
would argue that these models are of limited worth landscapes are a complex collection of landforms
because environmental conditions will not stay inherited from several generations of landscape
constant, or approximately constant, for millions development.
or even hundreds of thousands of years. None- It is helpful to distinguish relict landforms from
theless, the models do show the broad patterns of a non-glacial perspective and relict landforms
hillslope and land-surface change that occur under from a glacial perspective (Ebert 2009a). From a
particular process regimes. They also enable the non-glacial perspective, the term relict landform
study of landscape evolution as part of a coupled applies to many landforms worldwide (Bloom
tectonic–climatic system with the potential for 2002). From a glacial perspective, a relict landform
feedbacks between climatically influenced surface is one that cold-based ice (p. 261) has preserved,
processes and crustal deformation (see pp. 78–80). owing to the fact that little or no deformation
Some examples of long-term landscape models takes place under ice continuously frozen to the
will be given in Chapter 8. ground (Kleman 1994). The term preglacial
landform refers to any landform older than a
specified glaciation.
VESTIGES OF THE PAST:
RELICT FEATURES
Relict landforms
‘Little of the earth’s topography is older than the
Tertiary and most of it no older than Pleistocene’ In some landscapes, the inherited forms were
(Thornbury 1954, 26). For many decades, this fashioned by processes similar to those now
view was widely held by geomorphologists. operating there, but it is common to find
Research over the last twenty years has revealed polygenetic landscapes in which the processes
that a significant part of the land surface is responsible for a particular landform no longer
surprisingly ancient, surviving in either relict or operate. The clearest and least equivocal example
buried form (see Twidale 1999). These survivors of this is the glacial and periglacial landforms left
from long-past climatic and environmental as a vestige of the Ice Age in mid-latitudes. Many
regimes were almost invariably created by pro- of the glacial landforms discussed in Chapter 10 are
cesses no longer acting on them. Such landforms relicts from the Pleistocene glaciations. In upland
are relicts. Relict landforms and landscapes may Britain, for instance, hillslopes sometimes bear
 INTRODUCING HISTORY 49

ridges and channels that were fashioned by ice a 100 million years or more, witness the
and meltwater during the last ice age. In the English Gondwanan and post-Gondwanan erosion sur-
Lake District, U-shaped valleys, roches moutonnées, faces in the Southern Hemisphere (King 1983).
striations, and so on attest to an icy past. However, Some weathering profiles in Australia are 100
not all signs of glaciation are incontrovertible. million years old or even older (Ollier 1991, 53).
Many landforms and sediments found in glaciated Remnants of a ferricrete-mantled land surface
regions, even those regions buried beneath deep surviving from the early Mesozoic era are
and fast-flowing ice, have no modern analogues. widespread in the Mount Lofty Ranges, Kangaroo
Landforms with no modern analogues include Island, and the south Eyre Peninsula of South
drumlins, large-scale flutings, rogen moraines Australia (Twidale et al. 1974). Indeed, much of
(p. 278), and hummocky topography. This means south-eastern Australia contains many very old
that drumlins are not forming at present and the topographical features (Young 1983; Bishop et al.
processes that fashion them cannot be studied 1985; Twidale and Campbell 1995). Some upland
directly but can only be inferred from the size, surfaces originated in the Mesozoic era and others
shape, composition, and location of relict forms. in the early Palaeogene period; and in some areas
Glacial landforms created by Pleistocene ice may the last major uplift and onset of canyon cutting
be used as analogues for older glaciations. For occurred before the Oligocene epoch. In southern
instance, roches moutonnées occur in the Nevada, early to middle Pleistocene colluvial
geological record: abraded bedrock surfaces in the deposits, mainly darkly varnished boulders, are
Neoproterozoic sequence of Mauritania contain common features of hillslopes formed in volcanic
several well-developed ones, and others have been tuff. Their long-term survival indicates that
found in the Late Palaeozoic Dwykas Tillite of denudation rates on resistant volcanic hillslopes
South Africa (Hambrey 1994, 104). in the southern Great Basin have been exceedingly
Other polygenetic landscapes are common. In low throughout Quaternary times (Whitney and
deserts, ancient river systems, old archaeological Harrington 1993).
sites, fossil karst phenomena, high lake strandlines, The palaeoclimatic significance of these
and deep weathering profiles are relict elements finds has not passed unnoticed: for much of the
that attest to past humid phases; while stabilized Cenozoic era, the tropical climatic zone of
fossil dune fields on desert margins are relicts of the Earth extended much further polewards than
more arid phases. In the humid tropics, a sur- it does today. Indeed, evidence from deposits
prising number of landscape features are relict. in the landscape, as well as evidence in the
Researchers working in the central Amazonian palaeobotanical record, indicates that warm and
Basin (Tricart 1985) and in Sierra Leone (Thomas moist conditions extended to high latitudes in
and Thorp 1985) have unearthed vestiges of fluvial the North Atlantic during the late Cretaceous
dissection that occurred under dry conditions and Palaeogene periods. Julius Büdel (1982)
between about 20,000 and 12,500 years ago. In was convinced that Europe suffered extensive
New South Wales, Australia, a relict karst cave etchplanation during Tertiary times (p. 440). Signs
that could not have formed under today’s climate of ancient saprolites and duricrusts, bauxite and
has possibly survived from the Mesozoic (Osborne laterite, and the formation and preservation of
and Branagan 1988). erosional landforms, including tors, inselbergs,
and pediments, have been detected (Summerfield
and Thomas 1987). Traces of a tropical weathering
Relict land surfaces
regime have been unearthed (e.g. Battiau-Queney
In tectonically stable regions, land surfaces, 1996). In the British Isles, several Tertiary weather-
especially those capped by duricrusts, may persist ing products and associated landforms and soils
50 INTRODUCING LANDFORMS AND LANDSCAPES

have been discovered (e.g. Battiau-Queney 1984, regime during Tertiary times (Büdel 1982; Bosák
1987). On Anglesey, which has been a tectonically et al. 1989).
stable area since at least the Triassic period, The connection between landforms and
inselbergs, such as Mynydd Bodafon, have climate is the subject of considerable dispute, with
survived several large changes of climatic regime protagonists being on the one hand climatic
(Battiau-Queney 1987). Karin Ebert (2009b) geomorphologists, who believe that different
has recognized many inselbergs in northern climatic zones cultivate distinct suites of land-
Sweden formed before the Quaternary and forms, and on the other hand those geomorpholo-
surviving late Cenozoic glaciations (Plate 3.1). In gists who are unconvinced by the climatic
Europe, Asia, and North America many karst argument, at least in its most extreme form. This
landscapes are now interpreted as fossil landforms debate has relevance to the interpretation of relict
originally produced under a tropical weathering landscape features (Box 3.1).

Plate 3.1 Kuormakka, a remnant inselberg in northern Sweden surviving late Cenozoic glaciations.
(Photograph by Karin Ebert)

Table 3.1 A simple scheme relating geomorphic processes to climate

Climate Weathering process Weathering depth Mass movement

Glacial Frost Shallow Rock glacier

(chemical effects reduced by Solifluction (wet)
low temperatures) Scree slopes
Humid Chemical Deep Creep
Landslides
Arid Salt Deep Rockfalls

Source: Adapted from Ollier (1988)

Box 3.1 RELICT LANDFORMS AND CLIMATIC GEOMORPHOLOGY

Climatic geomorphologists have made careers out of deciphering the generations of landforms
derived from past climates. Their arguments hinge on the assumption that present climatic zones
tend to foster distinctive suites of landforms (e.g. Tricart and Cailleux 1972; Büdel 1982; Bremer
1988). Such an assumption is certainly not without foundation, but many geomorphologists,
particularly in English-speaking countries, have questioned it. A close connection between process
regimes and process rates will be noted at several points in the book (e.g. pp. 155–9). Whether
the set of geomorphic processes within each climatic zone creates characteristic landforms –
whether a set of morphogenetic regions may be established – is debatable.
Climatic geomorphology has been criticized for using temperature and rainfall data, which
provide too gross a picture of the relationships between rainfall, soil moisture, and runoff, and
for excluding the magnitude and frequency of storms and floods, which are important in landform
development. Some landforms are more climatically zonal in character than are others. Arid, nival,
periglacial, and glacial landforms are quite distinct. Other morphoclimatic zones have been
distinguished, but their constituent landforms are not clearly determined by climate. In all
morphoclimatic regions, the effects of geological structure and etching processes are significant,
even in those regions where climate exerts a strong influence on landform development (Twidale
and Lageat 1994). It is likely that, for over half the world’s land surface, climate is not of overarching
importance in landform development. Indeed, some geomorphologists opine that landforms, and
especially hillslopes, will be the same regardless of climate in all geographical and climatic zones
(see Ruhe 1975).
The conclusion is that, mainly because of ongoing climatic and tectonic change, the climatic
factor in landform development is not so plain and simple as climatic geomorphologists have on
occasions suggested. Responses to these difficulties go in two directions – towards complexity
and towards simplicity. The complexities of climate–landform relations are explored in at least
two ways. One way is to attempt a fuller characterization of climate. A recent study of climatic
landscape regions of the world’s mountains used several pertinent criteria: the height of timberline,
the number and character of altitudinal vegetational zones, the amount and seasonality of moisture
available to vegetation, physiographic processes, topographic effects of frost, and the relative levels
of the timberline and permafrost limit (Thompson 1990). Another way of delving into the complexity
of climatic influences is to bring modern views on fluvial system dynamics to bear on the question.
One such study has taken a fresh look at the notion of morphogenetic regions and the response
of geomorphic systems to climatic change (Bull 1992). A simpler model of climatic influence on
landforms is equally illuminating (Ollier 1988). It seems reasonable to reduce climate to three
fundamental classes: humid where water dominates, arid where water is in short supply, and glacial
where water is frozen (Table 3.1). Each of these ‘climates’ fosters certain weathering and slope
processes. Deep weathering occurs where water is unfrozen. Arid and glacial landscapes bear the
full brunt of climatic influences because they lack the protection afforded by vegetation in humid
landscapes. Characteristic landforms do occur in each of these climatic regions, and it is usually
possible to identify past tropical landscapes from clay minerals in relict weathering profiles. It seems
reasonable, therefore, by making the assumption of actualism (p. 17), to use these present
climate–landform associations to interpret relict features that bear the mark of particular climatic
regimes. Julius Büdel (1982, 329–38), for instance, interprets the ‘etchplain stairways’ and polja
of central Dalmatia as relicts from the late Tertiary period, when the climate was more ‘tropical’,
being much warmer and possibly wetter. Such conditions would favour polje formation through
‘double planation’ (p. 440): chemical decomposition and solution of a basal weathering surface
under a thick sheet of soil or sediment, the surface of which was subject to wash processes.
52 INTRODUCING LANDFORMS AND LANDSCAPES

CONTINGENCY: PROCESS, in a specific environmental and historical context,

PLACE, AND TIME with several outcomes possible for each set of
processes and boundary conditions. This view
Contingency relates geomorphic states and may help to reconcile different geomorphological
processes to particular places and specific times. traditions, including process and historical
The response of a geomorphic system can be approaches.
contingent upon the timing, sequence, and initial It seems clear from the discussion in this
conditions of events. Thus, soil erosion brought chapter that, on empirical and theoretical fronts,
about by an intense spring thunderstorm may the hegemony of process geomorphology is
depend as much on whether the storm occurs eroding fast. The new historical geomorphology
before or after a crop has emerged as on the is giving the subject a fresh direction. The message
intensity of the rainfall and the properties of the is plain: the understanding of landforms should
soil surface (Phillips 2009). However, contingency be based on knowledge of history and process.
operates over all timescales and its effects are Without a consideration of process, history is
perhaps more noticeable when looking at long- undecipherable; without knowledge of history,
term changes in geomorphic systems, for Earth process lacks a context. Together, process and
history is replete with unforeseen events that can history lead to better appreciation of the Earth’s
have a big impact on what happens later. surface forms, their behaviour and their evolution.
There is an interesting connection between
geomorphic systems and unforeseen events. Many
SUMMARY
and various environmental controls and forcings
affect geomorphic systems to create many different Historical geomorphologists reconstruct past
landscapes and landforms. Some of these controls changes in landscapes using the methods of
and forcings are casually contingent and specific stratigraphic and environmental reconstruction
to a time and place. Dynamical instability creates and topographic chronosequences, often hand in
and magnifies some of this contingency by hand with dating techniques, and numerical
encouraging the effects of small initial variations modelling. Some landforms survive in either relict
and local disturbances to persist and grow or buried form from long-past climatic and
disproportionately large. The combined prob- environmental regimes. These relict landforms
ability of any particular set of global controls is and land surfaces were created by processes no
low, and the probability of any set of local, longer acting on them today. They may last for
contingent controls is even lower. In consequence, thousands, millions, many millions of years.
the likelihood of any landscape or geomorphic Contingency gives a historical context to geo-
system existing at a particular place and time is morphic changes, pinning forms and processes
negligibly small – all landscapes are perfect, in the to particular places and specific times. It acts over
sense that they are an improbable coincidence of all timescales but its effects are sometimes striking
several different forces or factors (Phillips 2007). over the long term, because Earth history is full
This fascinating notion, which has much in com- of unexpected events that partly dictate what
mon with Cliff Ollier’s ‘evolutionary geomorph- happens later.
ology’ (p. 457), dispenses with the view that all
landscapes and landforms are the inevitable
outcome of deterministic laws. Rather, it offers a
ESSAY QUESTIONS
powerful and integrative new view that sees land- 1 To what extent do process geomorphology
scapes and landforms as circumstantial and con- and historical geomorphology inform each
tingent outcomes of deterministic laws operating other?
 INTRODUCING HISTORY 53

2 How important are relict landforms in Phillips, J. D. (2007) The perfect landscape.
understanding landscape evolution? Geomorphology 84, 159–69.
A thought-provoking paper.
3 Explain the nature of contingency in Summerfield, M. A. (1991) Global Geomorphology:
geomorphology. An Introduction to the Study of Landforms.
Harlow, Essex: Longman.
A classic after just twenty years. Contains some
FURTHER READING historical material.
Bloom, A. L. (2002) Teaching about relict, no-analog Twidale, C. R. and Campbell, E. M. (2005) Australian
landscapes. Geomorphology 47, 303–11. Landforms: Understanding a Low, Flat, Arid and
A very interesting paper. Old Landscape. Kenthurst, New South Wales:
Rosenberg Publishing.
Kennedy, B. A. (2005) Inventing the Earth: Ideas on
Contains some useful and well-illustrated
Landscape Development since 1740. Oxford:
chapters on historical aspects of geomorphology.
Blackwell.
A good read on the relatively recent history of
ideas about landscape development.