Structural Landforms

Up to the end of the nineteenth century, landforms were viewed largely as expressions of the structure of the earth's underlying crust. But such interpretations were concerned for the most part with generalities and broad effects; the subtleties of structural factors became overshadowed first by cyclic explanations and then by the modern emphasis on process and climatic geomorphology.

This book arose from the neglect of structural factors in geomorphological interpretation. Nowadays it is recognized that details of jointing and faulting, both past and present, of the stresses in folds, of past conditions of sedimentation, all play an important part in the determination of present landforms. Moreover, today's geomorphologists must think in terms not only of distribution—length and breadth—but also in terms of vertical and temporal change.

The author brings this new thinking into Structural Landforms and the result is a book of great interest and importance to students of geography and geology, to teachers and professional geomorphologists. It is particularly rich in photographs and line figures, and includes an excellent bibliography.