GGR112H5 Chapter Notes - Chapter 14: Granite Dome, Dynamic Equilibrium, Batholith
Document Summary
Geomorphology is the science that analyzes and describes the origin, evolution, form, and spatial distribution of landforms. Earth"s exogenic system, powered by solar energy and gravity, tears down the landscape through processes of landmass denudation involving weathering, mass movement, erosion, transportation, and deposition. Different rocks offer differing resistance to these weathering processes and produce a pattern on the landscape of differential weathering. Agents of change include moving air, water, waves, and ice. Since the 1960s, research and understanding of the processes of denudation have moved toward the dynamic equilibrium model, which considers slope and landform stability to be consequences of the resistance of rock materials to the attack of denudation processes. When a destabilizing event occurs, a landform or landform system may reach a geomorphic threshold, where force overcomes resistance and the system moves to a new level and toward a new equilibrium state.
