How Landscapes Became Physics

2 credits · Graduate

A reading seminar tracing the development of quantitative, process-based geomorphology through the papers that built it, read in the order they were written. Beginning with Gilbert's Henry Mountains report and Davis's geographical cycle, the sequence follows the equilibrium concept through Hack and Schumm, the mathematical treatments of Ahnert and Smith and Bretherton, and the channel-initiation and landscape-modeling work of Montgomery, Dietrich, and Howard, ending with the case for geomorphic transport laws. Discussion only; participants read closely and lead sessions in turn.