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Desert geomorphology or the geomorphology of arid and semi-arid lands shares many landforms and processes with more humid regions. One distinctive feature is the sparse or lacking vegetation cover, which influences fluvial and slope processes, related to wind and salt activity. [4]
At a glimpse in geologic time, one of these forcing mechanisms may look to be the dominant process. Observations made on long geologic times scales (≥10 6 annum ) typically reveal much about slower, larger-magnitude geologic processes such as tectonism [ 5 ] from a regional to even global scale.
Organisms affect geomorphic processes in a variety of ways. For example, trees can reduce landslide potential where their roots penetrate to underlying rock, plants and their litter inhibit soil erosion, biochemicals produced by plants accelerate the chemical weathering of bedrock and regolith, and marine animals cause the bioerosion of coral.
Mass wasting is a general term for any process of erosion that is driven by gravity and in which the transported soil and rock is not entrained in a moving medium, such as water, wind, or ice. [2] The presence of water usually aids mass wasting, but the water is not abundant enough to be regarded as a transporting medium.
An early popular geomorphic model was the geographical cycle or cycle of erosion model of broad-scale landscape evolution developed by William Morris Davis between 1884 and 1899. [11] It was an elaboration of the uniformitarianism theory that had first been proposed by James Hutton (1726–1797). [24]
Understanding the principle of isostasy is a key element to understanding the interactions and feedbacks shared between erosion and tectonics. The principle of isostasy states that when free to move vertically, lithosphere floats at an appropriate level in the asthenosphere so that the pressure at a depth of compensation in the asthenosphere well below the base of the lithosphere is the same. [3]
It is a response to the development of this GIS technology to gather and process DEM data (e.g. remote sensing, the Landsat program and photogrammetry). Recent applications proceed with the integration of geomorphometry with digital image analysis variables obtained by aerial and satellite remote sensing . [ 7 ]
Nivation is the set of geomorphic processes associated with snow patches.The primary processes are mass wasting and the freeze and thaw cycle, [1] in which fallen snow gets compacted into firn or névé.