History of Geomorphology: From Hutton to Hack

ISBN-13: 9789401198301 / Angielski / Miękka / 2014 / 344 str.

Keith Tinkler

Opis

both independent of, and competitive with, similar structures in geography and geology to which its parent bodies belong. This move is likely to be seen as one of great significance by those involved in its organisation and by many beyond it, and it may well signal structural changes within the discipline whose actual outcome and meaning will not be clear for several decades. My perspective on such a move is cool, because the adoption of an historical perspective with respect to the practice of 'geomorphology' in times past brings the recognition that times present are in no sense different. That which seems appropriate, fundable, official and achievable is just that: the essays of Stoddart (Chapter 8) and Hewitt (Chapter 9) both neatly illustrate, in their different ways, the distinction between 'official' and 'scientific' approaches to the same problem. But institutional expansion, Vitek's paper not withstanding (Chapter 14), may not be why our geomorphology will be of interest to future generations. What that interest will be is a matter for speculation.

Spis treści

1 On the nature of geo-history, with reflections on the historiography of geomorphology.- 2 Les Méconnus: eighteenth century French pioneers of geomorphology.- 3 Worlds Apart: eighteenth century writings on rivers, lakes and the terraqueous globe.- 4 James Hutton’s rôle in the history of geomorphology.- 5 The turning of the worm: early nineteenth century concepts of soil in Britain — the development of ideas and ideas of development, 1834 – 1843.- 6 James Forbes on the Mer de Glace in 1842: early quantification in geomorphology.- 7 “Extraordinary and terrifying metamorphosis” — on the seismic causes of slope instability.- 8 From colonial science to scientific independence: Australian reef geomorphology in the nineteenth century.- 9 European science in high Asia: geomorphology in the Karakoram Himalaya to 1939.- 10 Eustasy to plate tectonics: unifying ideas on the evolution of the major features of the earth’s surface.- 11 Reconstructing the chronology of Lake Bonneville: an historical review.- 12 Different aspects of Polish geomorphology: palæogeographic, dynamic and applied.- 13 A tribute to John Hack by his friends and colleagues.- 14 A perspective on geomorphology in the twentieth century: links to the past and future.- 15 Afterword.