continental landform

Introduction
General observations
- Basic concepts and considerations
- Constraints on modern landform theory
Historical survey
- Landform theories of the 18th and 19th centuries
  - Catastrophism
  - Uniformitarianism
  - Gradualism
- Davis’s erosion cycle theory and related concepts
  - The geographic cycle
  - Davisian dynamic equilibrium
  - The geomorphic concepts of Penck and King
- Climatic morphogenesis
  - Morphogenetic area
  - Interactions between geomorphic systems
- Tectonic geomorphology
- Consideration of unique landforms and other distinctive topographic features
Theoretical overview
- Orogenic and epeirogenic morphogenesis
  - Orogenic geomorphic systems
  - Climatically dominated epeirogenic realms
- A unified landform theory
  - Behaviour of geomorphic systems
  - The concept of periodic random dominance
  - Process geomorphology and systems equilibria

References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

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Davis's proposed landscape-development states

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continental landform

geology

Also known as: landform, continental

Written by

Hessle Filmore Garner

Emeritus Professor of Geology, Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey. Author of The Origin of Landscapes: A Synthesis of Geomorphology (Oxford University Press, 1974).

Hessle Filmore Garner

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

Britannica Editors

History

continental landform, any conspicuous topographic feature on the largest land areas of the Earth. Familiar examples are mountains (including volcanic cones), plateaus, and valleys. (The term landform also can be applied to related features that occur on the floor of the Earth’s ocean basins, as, for example, seamounts, mid-oceanic ridges, and submarine canyons.) Such structures are rendered unique by the tectonic mechanisms that generate them and by the climatically controlled denudational systems that modify them...

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