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What were the landscapes of the past like? What will landscapes look like in the future?Landscapes are all around us, but most of us know very little about how they have developed, what goes on in them, and how they react to changing climates, tectonics and human activities. Examining what landscape is, and how we use a range of ideas and techniques to study it, Andrew Goudie andHeather Viles demonstrate how geomorphologists have built on classic methods pioneered by some great 19th century scientists to examine our Earth.Using examples from around the world, including New Zealand, the Tibetan Plateau, and the deserts of the Middle East, they examine some of the key controls on landscape today such as tectonics and climate, as well as humans and the living world. They also discuss some key 'landscape detectives' fromthe past, including Charles Darwin who did some important, but often overlooked, research on landscape.Concluding with the cultural importance of landscape, and exploring how this has led to the conservation of much 'earth heritage', they delve into the future and look at how we can predict the response of landscapes to climate change in the future.… (more)
User reviews
The Very Short Introduction series lives up to its name. Compiling an entire field into just 125 pages is no small task, so the information presented here is often far too generalized. Terms and phrases show up and disappear without any solid explanation, which seems to suggest the
Topics covered include:
-Geologic time and its influence on geomorphology.
-History of geomorphology and geology and the advancement of theory up until plate tectonics.
-Changes and formation of various important geomorphological features, e.g., atolls, glacial moraines, the Tibetan Plateau, fluvial systems, soil erosion, thaw lakes, the Storegga Slide, and many, many more.
-A focus on the pleistocene and holocene epochs.
-Methods and tools used to study geomorphology (somewhat confusingly covered--there's so much!): DGPS, LIDAR, SRI, various dating methods, SRTM, bathymetry, and far too many others to keep track of.
-Changing climate's effects; anthropogeomorphology; impact of plant and animal, dust and methane, etc.
-The 'discovery' of planetary and marine geology.
-A fairly uninteresting (and out-of-place) look at geomorphology and culture.
The chapters on anthropogeomorphology, climatic effects and how man's studying the alien landscapes of distant planets and the ocean floor were very worthwhile, making me particularly curious of planetary geology. Included at the end is a welcome list of detailed "further reading" suggestions.
Overall, it's not a bad introduction, and the suggested reading list closing the overview may prove useful to those with deep pockets and a love for textbooks.
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