Geomorphology Notes: Meaning| Origin| Landform Formation and More

Geomorphology is the study of landforms and their development. The topic deals with the description of landforms, and the process and forces acting on Earth’s surface to generate these landforms and landform changes. Geomorphology has a significant role in the processes that direct the distribution of soils on the landscape.

Hence, geomorphology is the study of various features that are found on the Earth, such as hills, plains, beaches, rivers, mountains, moraines, cirques, sand dunes, spits, etc., that are created by various agents such as rivers, wind, glaciers, ocean, etc. Through this article let us understand geomorphology, its utilization in earth geology, and various aspects of day-to-day life.

Know more about Landforms Developed Due To The Effects Of: Wind, River Systems, Sea Waves And More here.

Geomorphology: An Introduction

What does geomorphology mean? Why is geomorphology important and what does it tell us? Geomorphology is the examination of landforms and the processes that shape them. Earth’s surface is thus assembled as a restless system of solids, liquids, and gases for which change is a common denominator.

The term geomorphology is derived from Greek terms. One is termed “Gew” which signifies “the Earth” and another is the “Morfh” which signifies “the Form” whereas the last is “logos” which indicates “the discourse” or “the study”. So, that means, it is the discourse of the earth form.

1. For example, consider a continent, when zoomed this continent comprises rivers, mountains, glaciers, deserts, oceanic systems, islands, volcanoes, and more. These features and how they are arranged, how they are grouped side by side, and what is their inherent relationships are the discourse of this earth form.
2. The earth was formed 4.6 billion years ago and has passed through many changes which have formed its current pattern and structure.
3. From a dust ball according to the nebular hypothesis, to the prevailing form, the Earth has transformed a lot. So, this implies the processes which are acting in the present day that may not be acting in the past and vice versa leading to changes on the earth’s surface.
4. If we analyze the oldest rocks of the earth, there was only one type of rock, which is the igneous rocks and with time the sedimentary rock came into existence, and with time, all those sedimentary rocks and igneous rocks were metamorphosed and transformed to metamorphic rock.
5. That implies if we start analyzing from the beginning to the present day, one can observe many times the earth has encountered these geomorphological changes, palaeogeographical changes, process changes within this course of time and all these changes have been documented within this earth’s history in the form of rock mostly in the “sedimentary rock” body.
6. This is the reason these sedimentary rock bodies are more important as compared to other types of rock to study geomorphological history.
7. The volcanic actions, meteoritic results, and erosional activities of rivers, glaciers, winds, oceans, etc. along with the seafloor spreading and plate tectonic activities have been continually operating to develop the Earth as we see presently.
8. Many of these activities occur during a small interval, while some take millions of years to create different climatic, geologic, and geomorphic regimes.
9. All of these never-ending processes are still continuously progressing and shaping our Earth. The most well-known of all these processes are geomorphic processes as they create the shape and form of the Earth that we see now.
10. Therefore, the study of these geomorphic processes is significant to explain the phenomena and processes that are happening in nature.

Landform Formation

Landform formation comprises two processes namely constructive process and destructive process.

Constructive Process

A constructive process means some material is added to the system that is a process that creates landforms. The volcanic activity adds up some material through the eruption, sediment deposition that is eroding from some area somewhere from higher lands, and depositing at the mountain fronts, the flood comes under constructive process.

Destructive Process

A destructive process means some material is wiped out of the system or the process that destroys a landform. Weathering, erosion, earthquake, landslide, etc come under the destructive process which leads to the removal of material either physically or chemically or biologically or a combination of both.

There are multiple sub-disciplines in geomorphology including tectonic, storm, fluvial, aeolian, glacial, tsunami, groundwater, floodplain, climate, and many others. These sub-disciplines are essentially driven by distinctions in the mechanics and dynamics involved in the processes. Engineering geomorphology is the study of how geomorphology and geomorphic processes have and may impact sites of engineered works.

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