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Contributions to the history of geomorphology and Quaternary geology: an introduction

DAVID R. OLDROYD1 & RODNEY H. GRAPES2 1School of History and Philosophy, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia (e-mail: [email protected]) 2Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Korea University, Seoul, 136-701, Korea (e-mail: [email protected])

This Special Publication deals with various aspects the Baltic States in 2006, where a great deal of of the histories of geomorphology and Quaternary what the geologist sees consists of Quaternary geology in different parts of the world. Geomor- sediments. However, much of the Earth’s surface phology is the study of landforms and the processes is not formed of these sediments but of older that shape them, past and present. Quaternary rocks exposed at the surface by erosion and struc- geology studies the sediments and associated tural displacement. Here, geomorphology can seek materials that have come to mantle much of answers to questions regarding the past histories of Earth’s surface during the relatively recent Pleisto- these rocks, their subsequent erosion, and present cene and Holocene epochs. Geomorphology, with location and form. Geomorphology also raises its concern for Earth’s surface features and pro- questions, and may provide answers, regarding tec- cesses, deals with information that is much more tonic issues, for example from deformed marine amenable to observation and measurement than is terraces and offset fault systems. In all these the case for most geological work. Quaternary instances, the history of geological and geomor- geology focuses mostly, but not exclusively, on phological investigations can serve to illustrate the Earth’s surficial sedimentary cover, which is both the progress and pitfalls involved in the scien- usually more accessible than the harder rocks of tific understanding of the Earth’s surface and the deeper past. recent geological history. Institutionally, geomorphology is usually There are relatively few books but a growing situated alongside, or within, academic departments number of research papers on the history of geo- of geology or geography. In most English-speaking morphology. For readers of English, there is a countries, its links are more likely to be with short book by Tinkler (1985) and a collection geography; but in the United States these connec- edited by the same writer (Tinkler 1989), an ele- tions are usually shared between geography and gantly written volume on British geomorphology geology, although rarely in the same institution. In from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century by leading institutions everywhere, strong links exist Davies (1969), and a series of essays by Kennedy between geomorphology and such cognate disci- (2006). But towering over all other writings are plines as soil science, hydrology, oceanography three volumes: those by Chorley et al. (1964) on and civil engineering. Although nominally part of geomorphology up to the time of the American, geology, Quaternary geology also has strong links William Morris Davis (1850–1934); by Chorley with geography and with those disciplines, such as et al. (1973) dealing exclusively with Davis; and climatology, botany, zoology and archaeology, by Beckinsale & Chorley (1991) on some aspects concerned with environmental change through the of work after Davis. As envisaged by Chorley relatively recent past. and Beckinsale, who died in 2002 and 1999, Given that geomorphology concerns the study respectively, a fourth volume by other authors is of the Earth’s surface (i.e. landforms, and their soon to emerge (Burt et al. 2008). A series of origin, evolution and the processes that shape essays edited by Stoddart (1997) on Process and them) and that the uppermost strata are in many Form in Geomorphology (1997) also contains cases of Pleistocene and Holocene age, it is unsur- valuable historical material, while papers edited prising that this Special Publication should deal by Walker & Grabau (1993) discuss the develop- ‘promiscuously’ with topics in both geomorphol- ment of geomorphology in different countries, of ogy and Quaternary studies. This particular selec- which Australia, China, Estonia, Iceland, Japan, tion has been developed from a nucleus of papers Lithuania, New Zealand, The Netherlands, the presented at a conference on the histories of USA and the USSR are specifically mentioned in geomorphology and Quaternary geology held in the present volume.

From:GRAPES, R. H., OLDROYD,D.&GRIGELIS, A. (eds) History of Geomorphology and Quaternary Geology. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 301, 1–17. DOI: 10.1144/SP301.1 0305-8719/08/$15.00 # The Geological Society of London 2008. Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on October 1, 2021

2 D. R. OLDROYD & R. H. GRAPES

A framework for geomorphology uplift, landforms shaped by rivers pass through different stages of development, which he dubbed Connections between geomorphology and geology ‘youth’, ‘maturity’ and ‘old age’, until they are go back to the early days of Earth science, but it reduced to a nearly level surface or ‘peneplain’. is to developments in the later eighteenth century The peneplain, for which he found evidence in the that we often attribute the foundations of modern Appalachians, could later be ‘rejuvenated’ by links between the disciplines, notably to scholars uplift, thereby initiating a new cycle of erosion. such as Giovanni Targioni-Tarzetti (1712–1783) This model led to studies of ‘denudation chronol- in Italy, Jean-Etienne Guettard (1715–1786) in ogy’, or the reconstruction of landscape histories France, Mikhail Lomonosov (1711–1765) in based of the recognition of erosion cycles and pene- Russia and James Hutton (1726–1797) in Scotland. plains in various stages of development. Without a Hutton gave much thought to extended Earth time, clear understanding of the processes and time and to the processes whereby soil and rock are involved, however, ‘reading a landscape’ through eroded from the land to the sea. In 1802, Hutton’s the lens of Davisian doctrine, or elucidating its friend and biographer, John Playfair (1748–1810), ‘denudation chronology’, became an art form, not only rescued Hutton’s ideas from relative rather than a rigorous science. Davis’s geomorphic obscurity but contributed original ideas on the model was essentially qualitative and difficult to nature and behaviour of river systems. However, test but, as Charles Darwin famously wrote the intellectual climate of the time worked against regarding his notion of natural selection, ‘here the ready acceptance of their views. then I had at last a theory by which to work’ Following the leads provided by Hutton and (Darwin 1887, p. 83). Playfair, Charles Lyell (1797–1875) also addressed Davis’s ideas were challenged in his own time, questions of extended Earth time and of erosion in particularly by German geomorphologists such as his well-known and influential three-volume trea- Albrecht Penck (1858–1945), Professor of Physical tise Principles of Geology (Lyell 1830–1833). He Geography at the University of Vienna and later of emphasized the differential erosive powers that Geography at Berlin, and more particularly his son rivers or the sea could have on strata of different Walther Penck (1888–1923). Before the World hardness, and discussed cases where river systems War I, the Pencks and Davis were on good terms, did not divide simply, like the branches of a tree, but they subsequently drifted apart, partly owing but cut through higher ground or occupied the to world politics and partly owing to Walther’s eroded axes of anticlines. The latter phenomenon rejection of the idealized character of Davis’s could be explained by supposing that folding had theory along with disagreements as to the relation- fractured the rocks at an anticlinal crest so that ship between Earth movements and erosion. The they became more prone to erosion, with the Pencks objected to the notion of discrete upward result that ‘reversal’ of drainage might occur. But Earth movements as the cause of topographic reju- Lyell realized that most of the rivers draining the venation and also argued that erosion wears back a Weald of SE England did not follow the main surface just as much as down. However, Walther axis of the Wealden anticline but often cut Penck’s proposed model of slope retreat would through the North or South Downs that formed eventually yield a gently sloping surface resembling the flanks of the fold. He attributed such anomalous a Davisian peneplain (Penck 1924, 1953). Penck configurations to fractures that cut across the also envisaged an empirical relationship between Wealden axis and to the interaction of Earth move- tectonic activity and slope development, owing to ments and fluvial erosion. Thus, Lyell invoked geo- the changing rates of river incision as the land morphological and tectonic considerations in order itself was raised at varying rates. This idea was to develop a geological history of a region. rejected vigorously by some in the English- A name that often emerges in the present collec- speaking community, with Douglas Johnson tion of papers is that of W.M. Davis, with his theory (1878–1944), for example, describing it as ‘one of a cycle of erosion that was constructed in part on of the most fantastic ideas ever introduced into the work of his compatriots John Wesley Powell geomorphology’! (Johnson 1940, p. 231). (1834–1902), Clarence Edward Dutton (1841– Ultimately, the differences between Davis and 1912) and Grove Karl Gilbert (1843–1918) Penck lay in their different objectives and scientific (Davis 1889, 1899, 1912). And one may reiterate approaches. Davis regarded geomorphology as a that Davis’s work was considered by Chorley branch of geography, with geomorphic processes et al. (1973) to be so influential as to warrant an furnishing the topography upon which geography entire volume of their comprehensive historical ‘resided’. He, together with a number of like- study of geomorphology. minded geologists, geomorphologists and natural Davis’s initial cyclic ideas were encapsulated scientists, founded the Association of American in the hypothesis that, following initial structural Geographers in 1904, in part as a forum for his Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on October 1, 2021

AN INTRODUCTION 3 views (Orme 2005). Penck, in contrast, saw the field questions about the complex interaction of as being one that could elucidate problems of surface-shaping processes such as erosion, the crustal movements and he was apparently less con- effects of climate change, tectonic uplift and cerned with process and time (Hubbard 1940). It deformation, etc., the duration of erosion ‘cycles’, may be noted, though, that in his old age Davis or rock composition and structure. accepted the idea of parallel slope retreat, such as Davis’s erosion model was imbued with ideas is usually associated with the name of Walter drawn from Darwinian biology and his interests in Penck. Davis’s changed views were given in lec- entomology, and his diction was full of evolution- tures delivered at the University of Texas in 1929 ary metaphors. He was also interested in the prag- but were not published until as late as 1980 (King matic philosophy of Charles Peirce, as has been & Schumm 1980). remarked by Baker (1996). By contrast, an aware- Another major figure in the modern formulation ness of recent developments in thermodynamics of ideas on landscape evolution was the South manifested itself in Gilbert’s geomorphology African geomorphologist Lester C. King (1907– through notions of dynamic equilibrium, grade 1989). Imbued with Davisian ideas and the triad and feedback loops. Gilbert’s concept of ‘negative of process, time and structure, as a graduate feedback’ in stream systems leading to ‘graded student of Charles Cotton (1885–1970) in New rivers’ occurred some 7 years before Henri Le Zealand, King nevertheless went on to challenge Chatelier (1850–1936) enunciated his well-known much of Davisian theory. While still invoking the principle as a general feature of chemical systems. cyclic concept, like Penck he emphasized the Gilbert wrote: importance of surficial processes, particularly in relation to the role of scarp retreat and pediment for- Let us suppose that a stream endowed with a constant volume of mation, and the considerable antiquity (e.g. Cretac- water is at some point continuously supplied with as great a load eous) of some erosion surfaces. Given the structure as it is capable of carrying. For so great a distance as its velocity of his adopted homeland in Africa, with its exten- remains the same, it will neither corrade (downward) nor deposit, but will leave the grade of its bed unchanged. But if in sive flat-lying strata and thus many potential cap its progress it reaches a place where a less declivity of bed gives rocks, it is not surprising that King interpreted land- a diminished velocity, its capacity for transportation will become scapes primarily in terms of scarp recession with less than the load and part of the load will be deposited. Or if in consistency of slope form and inclination in any its progress it reaches a place where a greater declivity of bed area and structural setting indicating parallel gives an increased velocity, the capacity for transportation will retreat. He thought that steep slopes are shaped by become greater than the load and there will be corrasion of the gravity and turbulent water flow (e.g. in gullying), bed. In this way a stream which has a supply of de´bris equal to whereas pediments, the typical landform of ero- its capacity, tends to build up the gentler slopes of its bed and sional plains, are the result of surface water flow cut away the steeper. It tends to establish a single uniform grade. (Gilbert 1877, p. 112) (sheet wash), capable of transporting sediment and ‘smoothing’ the bedrock (King 1953). Pediments In the same publication, Gilbert also enunciated or pediplains persisted until another cycle of river ‘laws’ for the formation of uniform slopes, structure incision or change in base level occurs, causing and divides, and the concept of planation. In vege- further slope retreat. tated areas, he believed that the ‘law of divides’ Thus, although King concluded that the evol- was likely to prevail; in arid regions, he favoured ution of landscapes by the action of running water the ‘law of structure’. Thus, the ‘laws’ were not would occur everywhere, except in glacial and universal, in the style of Newton’s laws. Neverthe- desert areas, his ideas stemmed from observations less, Gilbert’s work marked a significant advance in in a semi-arid South Africa with limited river the search for geomorphological principles and action, where weathering and rockfall predominate, thereby a step towards the establishment of geo- and where scarp retreat, which occurs everywhere, morphology as a physical science (rather than an is closely linked to pedimentation, which is of historical ‘art’!). By contrast, Davis’s ‘evolutionary limited importance. King’s recognition of a geomorphology’, although attractive to his contem- Mesozoic (or Gondwana) surface on the Drakens- poraries and through much of the first half of the berg gave support to the idea that not all landforms twentieth century, has now been largely or are necessarily Late Cenozoic in age, as postulated wholly superseded. in other theories of landscape evolution (e.g. Hack But Gilbert’s concept of ‘grade’ also presents 1960). Mesozoic or Early Tertiary palaeosurface problems. It is supposedly a situation of balance remnants have been identified in many other between the transport of material in a river and cratonic and old orogenic areas (e.g. China and the widening or deepening of the river bed by corra- Australia; see articles by Branagan (2008) and sion. According to Davis, for a ‘mature’ river ‘a Zhang (2008), respectively, in this Special Publi- balanced condition is brought about by changes in cation), and their persistence raises fundamental the capacity of a river to do work, and in the Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on October 1, 2021

4 D. R. OLDROYD & R. H. GRAPES quantity of work that the river has to do’ (Davis the present state of ideas and knowledge, admits of only one expla- 1902, p. 86). This assumes that for a given rate of nation: that it is eustasy pure and simple. river flow, there is a limit to the load that it can (Baulig 1928, p. 543; translation from Beckinsale & carry, and that the energy available can be used Chorley 1991, p. 268) for either transport or corrasion. But these cannot Of course, it was easy to conflate or confuse glacial just be summed, so that for a given stream flow if and Suessian eustasy. Nevertheless, Baulig reiter- there is an increased load there is an equivalent ated his ideas in 1935, extending his claims of decrease in corrasion. But this is simply not the uniformity of marine terraces at distant locations case: halving the load does not double the corrasion back into the Pliocene (Baulig 1935). But this (Wooldridge 1953, p. 168). line of inquiry led to confusion as much as Walther Penck’s interest in the relationships to understanding. between Earth movements and landforms was The search for guiding principles, or ‘laws’ as shared by the French geomorphologist Henri they were (or are) sometimes mistakenly called, Baulig (1877–1962), who was a student of Davis has been a recurrent feature of the history of geo- for 6 years at Harvard. Baulig’s main area of morphology. As early as 1802, Playfair enunciated research was France’s Massif Central for which a general principle that, despite many exceptions, he tried to synthesize the ideas of Davis and those became known as ‘Playfair’s Law’, thus: of the notable Austrian geologist Eduard Suess (1831–1914) (Baulig 1928). During the later nine- Every river appears to consist of a main trunk, fed from a variety of teenth century, Suess had sought a global under- branches, each running in a valley proportional to its size, and all them together forming a system of vallies, communicating with standing of geological phenomena in terms of the one another, and having such a nice adjustment of their declivities, increasingly questionable notion of a cooling and that none of them join the principal valley, either on too high or too contracting Earth, which led to lateral compressive low a level; a circumstance which would be infinitely improbable, if forces that produced great orogenies. With each each of these valleys were not the work of the stream that flows in it. large-scale collapse of Earth’s crust, Suess believed (Playfair 1802, p. 102) that there was a concomitant global lowering of sea As the field of geomorphology developed, the level as well as elevation of mountain ranges. search for so-called laws among drainage networks Worldwide erosion and sedimentation would continued to interest scholars. For example, is there follow, and the ocean basins would receive sedi- any pattern, any law-like behaviour in such net- ment, leading to global marine transgressions. works? Can a mathematical model of stream These would supposedly account for the corre- branching be discerned? Very early on, Leonardo lations that might be made worldwide for different da Vinci (1452–1519) had noted the similarity of parts of the stratigraphic column. In 1888, the branching in trees and stream systems (Shepherd & global changes in sea level, arising from spasmodic Ellis 1977). Later, following the physician James tectonic episodes, were called ‘eustatic movements’ Keill’s (1673–1719) (1708) early anatomical by Suess (English translation 1906, p. 538); and, work on arterial trees, known to Hutton and Play- thus, there emerged the concept of global fair, Julian Jackson (1790–1853) (1833) addressed ‘eustasy’, based on intelligible (albeit mistaken) the notion of ‘stream order’ in 1834, and Harry explanatory principles. Suess’s ideas were attrac- Gravelius (1861–1938) of the Dresden Technical tive in Baulig’s earlier years as the basis of a Institute later expanded on these ideas (Gravelius general geological theory and it is therefore unsur- 1914). The largest or stem stream was designated prising that Baulig sought to link them to his as being of Order 1; the first tributary was of geomorphological studies. Order 2; and so on back to the unbranched In considering the relative levels of land and sea ‘fingertip’ tributaries. (globally), one could consider epeirogenic move- This nomenclature (or taxonomy) prevailed ments, isostasy and eustasy (the latter being due in Europe for a considerable time. But the US to epeirogeny/diastrophism or the waxing or Geological Survey hydrologist Robert Horton waning of glaciation, which could also generate (1875–1945) reversed the terminology so that isostatic responses). And if a land surface is ‘un-branched tributaries are of 1st order; streams reduced by erosion there will also be an isostatic that receive 1st-order tributaries, but these only, response. Despite these complexities, Baulig are of the 2nd order; third order streams receive favoured global eustasy as the main source of the 2nd- or 1st- and 2nd-order tributaries; and so on, formation of planar erosion surfaces. This opened until, finally, the main stream is of the highest the prospect of worldwide temporal correlation of order and characterizes the order of the drainage peneplains: basin’ (i.e. the highest order stream extends from [R]egions, widely-spaced and totally independent from a structural source to outlet) (Horton 1945, p. 277). Sub- viewpoint, show perfectly clearly an exactly similar geomorpholo- sequently, the American geologist Arthur Strahler gical development since the Upper Pleistocene. This similarity, in (1918–2002) proposed an alternative system of Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on October 1, 2021

AN INTRODUCTION 5 stream ordering designed to give an idea of the rela- age, landscape variability was considered to result tive power of the different waterways in a drainage from interacting contemporary processes wherein system (the higher the order the higher the power) a state of balance, or dynamic equilibrium, existed (Strahler 1952). between fluctuating inputs and outputs of material However, the Horton and Strahler schemes and energy. According to Hack, landforms were were misleading, and mathematically cumbrous, open systems so that similar landforms could have in that they ignored downstream links with different origins. For example, accordant summit streams of lower order. Later schemes by Adrian heights, invoked by Davis as evidence of former Scheidegger (b. 1925) (1965) and Ronald Shreve peneplains, may originate in rocks with similar (1966) resolved this problem. Although Horton’s hardness, structure and drainage density. Where early system allowed some interesting ‘laws’ to be rocks differ in resistance, there is the possibility defined and for drainage densities to be calculated, of different levels of accordant summits, which by the 1970s it had come to be realized that such are not necessarily explained in terms of multiple relationships were in large measure a consequence erosion cycles. Implicit in Hack’s work was the of the ordering systems used and the topological assumption that there is a uniform lowering of the randomness of such networks. Nevertheless, stream- landscape with little obvious change in rate and ordering systems continue to be used for ranking process unless there is a change in climate, tecton- purposes by drainage basin specialists. ism or geology. Thus, Hack’s model was in broad Among Strahler’s students at Columbia Univer- agreement with Penck and, provided that uplift sity, Stanley Schumm (b. 1927), who spent most of was slow enough to balance the rate of erosion, a his career with the US Geological Survey and at steady-state relief would result. Sudden uplift Colorado State University, and Mark Melton would produce transitional relief, with relict land- (b. 1930) were particularly prominent. Melton did forms disappearing as a new equilibrium state his PhD at Columbia and moved from there to the was approached. University of Chicago, where he was given to The advantages of this dynamic equilibrium understand that strongly mathematical and statisti- approach to landscape evolution was that it was cal work would be appreciated. Schumm (1956) not constrained by, or dependent on, a Davisian measured and analysed both the surface and subsur- stage, and it provided a convenient entry point face processes involved in slope development in (current conditions) for understanding the system order to provide a theoretical analysis of fluvial because the past is usually poorly known. The idea erosion. Melton’s mathematically sophisticated of dynamic equilibrium relies on the notion that work used a systems approach and ergodic reason- landscape systems near equilibrium change slowly ing for the analysis of geomorphological problems (time-dependent) and those that are far from (Melton 1958). Perhaps unsurprisingly, he demon- equilibrium change rapidly (time-independent). strated that channel frequency was a function of The concept thus unites two viewpoints. But drainage density. In these and other ways, Playfair’s debate continues, with arguments that equilibrium early insight on the form and interrelationships probably never exists in the multivariant, often of drainage networks was given mathematical chaotic and non-linear nature of Earth processes, expression during the so-called quantitative and that they more probably reflect disequilibrium revolution in geomorphology during the mid- (e.g. Phillips 1999). twentieth century. The concept of time is important to geomorphol- Prior to the ‘quantitative revolution’, the time- ogy, but it was not until the twentieth century that dependent models of Davis and Penck had the traditional preoccupation with time-dependent incorporated into geomorphology the notion of landscape evolution could be tested. The long- uniformitarianism: the assumption of gradual established foundations of the geological timescale, change through time based on the principle that such as the principles of stratigraphy, could not ‘the present is the key to the past’ (Geikie 1962, readily be applied to landforms undergoing denuda- p. 299). In contrast, the earlier work of Gilbert, tion but for which there were no residual deposits. based on the dynamic interactions of landform pro- For relatively short-term geomorphic events, time cesses, was more suited to a time-independent might be measured directly during a particular approach, although he did not develop a compre- event or period of measurement, or by reference hensive model. And in 1960 such a model, based to records over periods of recorded time. By con- on the study of humid temperate drainage basins, trast, for studies of landscape change over longer was proposed by John T. Hack (1913–1991) of periods, say from thousands to millions of years, the US Geological Survey. Hack’s model revealed some means of establishing the time frame is conflicts with erosion-cycle concepts and presented necessary and it is only within the past 100 years time-independent equilibrium as an alternative to or so, and often more recently, that such methods the Davisian system. Instead of attributing it to have become available. They include absolute Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on October 1, 2021

6 D. R. OLDROYD & R. H. GRAPES dating techniques, such as dendrochronology, A framework for Quaternary geology thermoluminescence and radiometric dating, and the development in recent decades of a wide The Quaternary is the shortest and most recent of range of surface-exposure dating techniques that the geological periods recognized in Earth history, can provide ages for eroded rocks and surfaces. defined here as the last 2.6 Ma. It is, perhaps, the For a review of such methods, see Walker & most important period of time because, despite its Lowe (2007). brevity relative to earlier periods, its materials A geomorphic division of time based on whether cover much of the present landscape and provide the variables of landscape evolution are indepen- soils and resources for agriculture and other dent, semi-independent or dependent was proposed human activities. It has been a period of pronounced by Schumm & Lichty (1965) in terms of cyclic time climate change with all that implies for Earth’s land (hundreds of thousands to millions of years that surface, hydrosphere and biosphere. It has also would cover the duration of a Davisian cycle), witnessed the later evolution of hominids and the graded time (thousands to hundreds of years) and emergence of Homo sapiens. In short, it is a steady time (a few days). In the first case, time is period of Earth time of great intrinsic and practical the most important independent variable and all interest. It is also, as we shall show, the focus of others, such as climate, initial relief and geology, much controversy. are dependent on it. Graded time is a short Recognition of the peculiar properties of the segment of cyclic time during which a graded con- Quaternary Period was slow to emerge, and dition exists that involves a fluctuating dynamic debate continues as to the precise nature of the equilibrium as the reduction of relief approaches a changes and forces involved. A major issue for steady state. Steady time represents a brief period geoscientists in the early–middle nineteenth during which some parts of the system remain century was the origin of the extensive surficial unchanged (e.g. uniform stream-flow or channel deposits, from clay to boulders, found across north- form) and hence are time-independent. ern Eurasia and North America. The deposits were The reintroduction of process to geomorphology mostly poorly consolidated, unsorted, poorly struc- in the 1950s brought about an inquiry into the tured and devoid of guide fossils. Following the effects of processes of different frequency and mag- dominant biblical beliefs of the time, these deposits nitude, encapsulated in the benchmark studies of had often been ascribed to materials deposited by Wolman & Miller (1960). In general, frequency the Noachian Deluge. Later, several catastrophic and magnitude are inversely related. Although rela- episodes were thought to have interrupted geo- tively infrequent, large-magnitude events such as logical history from time to time, as supposed great earthquakes or major floods can have cata- by Georges Cuvier (1769–1832) (1813). The strophic geomorphic consequences. Wolman & deposits supposedly derived from the Deluge were Miller’s work sought to show that most changes termed ‘Diluvium’ and were distinguished from in the landscape are carried out by frequent events ‘Alluvium’, which was still to be seen being laid of moderate magnitude, for example by peak down by rivers (Buckland 1819, pp. 532–533). annual stream flows. They suggested that such Roderick Murchison (1839, vol. 1, p. 509) pre- events do most of the work in geomorphic ferred the term ‘drift’ to Diluvium, as that word systems, but their model is not well supported in did not have any connotations of the ‘Deluge of areas such as Mediterranean-type regions and Holy Writ’ and might be applied to deposits desert margins, where rare high-magnitude events of similar character from different locations and clearly do most of the work, and it has subsequently of different ages, many of them attributable to been modified (e.g. Baker 1977; Wolman & marine currents. The term ‘drift’ caught on and, Gerson 1978). despite its ‘archaic’ implications, has survived to The foregoing gives some indications of the the present in many areas. In describing his obser- background to work in modern geomorphology, vations on coastal exposures in Norfolk in 1839, against which to evaluate many of the historical Lyell (1840, p. 176) deployed Murchison’s term essays in this book. In recent years, geomorphology ‘drift’ as a substitute for ‘Diluvium’ and added the has continued to grow as a discipline with emphasis suggestion that erratic boulders and the like were on quantitative data, experimentation, predictive emplaced as drop-stones by floating icebergs at a modelling (e.g. Wilcock & Iverson 2003), tectonic time of reduced global temperature, rather than geomorphology (e.g. Burbank & Anderson by exceptionally violent marine currents. Thus, 2001), and the understanding of links between where Lyell found such materials onshore, the process and form. Much recent work is driven land surface must have been lower than at present. by the need for hazard prediction and landscape The ‘iceberg theory’ accorded with Lyell’s objec- management in a world that is becoming ever tions to catastrophic floods as geological agents more crowded. but it initiated the unhelpful notion of ‘glacial Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on October 1, 2021

AN INTRODUCTION 7 submergence’: the idea that epochs of cold in century by Giovanni Arduino (1760). The term regions presently mantled in drift deposits ‘Pleistocene’ (‘Ple´istoce`ne tire´e du grec pleiston, coincided with marine transgressions. Yet, the plus kainos, recent’) was introduced by Lyell in involvement of the sea in drift deposits seemed 1839 in the Appendix to the French edition of his helpful in seeking to explain the occurrence of stra- Elements of Geology (1839, p. 622), as an alterna- tified layers in some ‘tills’ (the Scottish term that tive name for his previous term ‘Newer Pliocene’, Lyell also employed). proposed in his Principles of Geology (1833) on The ‘glacial theory’ (or ‘land-ice theory’) palaeontological grounds. (We thank Dr G. Gohau emerged through the work of Ignace Venetz for checking this reference in a Paris library.) (1788–1859) and Jean de Charpentier (1786– Lyell (1833, vol. 3, p. 61) referred to post-Tertiary 1855), among others, in the European Alps, and sediments as ‘Recent’ and stated that ‘some was popularized by Louis Agassiz (1807–1873) authors’ used the term for ‘formations which have with his publication of Etudes sur les glaciers originated during the human epoch’; but he did (1840). It was Agassiz who brought the Swiss not favour that definition (Lyell 1833, vol. 3, land-ice theory to Britain at the Glasgow meeting pp. 52–53). The name ‘Holoce`ne’(¼ ‘wholly of the British Association in 1840; and then to recent’) was subsequently suggested by Paul America with his appointment to Harvard Univer- Gervais (1867, vol. 2, p. 32), and the term ‘Holo- sity in 1846. Yet, for a time the unhelpful ‘glacial cene’ as a synonym for ‘Recent’ was ratified at submergence’ theory remained popular, at least in the Third International Geological Congress in insular Britain, as it gave an attractive explanation London in 1885. For Gervais, the Quaternary was of the presence of erratics over much of the low- made up of the Pleistocene and the Holocene. The lying ground of northern Europe. In his Antiquity latter was estimated as being some 8–10 ka in dur- of Man, Lyell (1863) seemingly accepted the ation. Moreover, with the general acceptance of the ‘land-ice theory’ but he later reverted to his idea of a ‘Great Ice Age’, the term Pleistocene came ‘iceberg theory’. Meanwhile, stimulated by writings to be used to represent the period of time when gla- on climate change by the astronomer John Herschel ciation was widespread in the northern hemisphere (1792–1871) (1830) and Joseph Adhe´mar (1797– (as suggested by Edward Forbes (1846, p. 403)). 1862) (1842), the Scotsman James Croll (1821– Lyell, however, did not use the term ‘Quaternary’. 1890) developed the then remarkable explanation So where should the base of the Pleistocene be for glacial epochs in terms of an astronomical located, and how should it be related to the Quatern- theory (Croll 1867) – a forerunner of the early ary? Maurice Gignoux (1910) suggested that the twentieth-century work of the Serbian mathemati- base of the Quaternary should be defined by a site cian Milutin Milankovic´ (1879–1958) (synthesized in Calabria in southern Italy, where sediment in 1941 and republished in English in 1998). containing cold-water fossils (especially Cyprina Despite, or perhaps because of, Agassiz’s advo- (Arctica) islandica) was seen to overlie sediments cacy of an extreme monoglacial ‘land-ice theory’ containing fossils indicative of a relatively warm and Lyell’s focus on his ‘iceberg theory’, the climate. This event was not well suited for inter- concept of widespread continental glaciation made national correlation but was nevertheless accepted slow progress in the mid-nineteenth century, and at the Eighteenth International Geological Congress some opposition persisted to the close of the in London in 1948 (King & Oakley 1950). Later, century (Orme 2002). Eventually, the publication Hays & Berggren (1971) showed that the Calabrian of The Great Ice Age by James Geikie (1839– deposit coincided quite closely with the top of the 1915) (1874) and The Ice Age in North America so-called ‘Olduvai Normal Event’, a short episode by George Frederick Wright (1838–1921) (1889) within the Matuyama Reversed Epoch of the geo- did much to confirm the theory. Geikie’s book magnetic polarity timescale, which occurred about was especially influential because he moved 1.8 Ma. This geomagnetic marker offered the possi- among influential scientists, including Thomas bility of unambiguous worldwide correlation, and C. Chamberlin (1843–1928) in North America hence became widely accepted (Haq et al. 1977). and Otto Torell (1828–1900) in Sweden, who A proposal for a Global Stratotype Section and early recognized the evidence for multiple glacia- Point (GSSP) for the boundary at Vrica in Calabria tions. By then, evidence for extensive non-glacial was ratified by the International Commission on deposits of Quaternary age, such as loess and Stratigraphy in 1983 and at the Moscow Inter- pluvial lake deposits, was also emerging. national Geological Congress in 1984 (Aguirre & The term ‘Quaternary’ (‘Quaternaire’) was first Passini 1985) (initially it was set at 1.64 Ma and proposed by Jules Desnoyers (1801–1887) (1829) later charged to 1.81 Ma). as an ‘extra’ to the Primary, Secondary and Tertiary This choice was based chiefly on ‘classical’ subdivisions of the stratigraphic column that biostratigraphic criteria. But many students of had been proposed in Italy in the eighteenth Quaternary geology were not happy with the Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on October 1, 2021

8 D. R. OLDROYD & R. H. GRAPES decision, as there was substantial evidence of earlier having been established back in 1928. An attempt glaciations in other parts of the world (see, for in 1998 to have the Pliocene–Pleistocene boundary example, Milanovsky 2008, published in this placed at the bottom of the Gelasian by the Com- Special Publication). Moreover, the term ‘Quatern- mission for Neogene Stratigraphy of the ICS was ary’ was considered by many to be outmoded, being unsuccessful (Ogg 2004, p. 125). out of line with other stratigraphic terminology, Given this messy situation, various proposals given that Primary and Secondary had long been have been put forward (e.g. Suc et al. 1997; obsolete and that the Cenozoic had been divided Pillans 2004; Gibbard et al. 2005; Suguio et al. into Palaeogene and Neogene, with the consequent 2005). But none of these provided a neat and demise of the Tertiary (Fig. 1). The ‘issue of the consensual solution. Suc et al. (1997) favoured the Neogene’ has been an important additional factor move of the base of the Pleistocene to the bottom confounding discussions of the Quaternary and the of the Gelasian and disuse of the term ‘Quaternary’. Pleistocene. The term was introduced by the Aus- Pillans (2004) believed that the Quaternary should trian Moritz Ho¨rnes (1815–1868) (1853). For back- be preserved and should run from the bottom of ground on the Neogene and Palaeogene, see the Gelasian to the present (there being no Holocene Berggren (1998). unit as the Neogene also runs through to the Given the evidence for late Cenozoic glaciation present); but the Pliocene–Pleistocene boundary in some parts of the world earlier than 1.8 Ma, and should continue to be located at the top of the the fact that the Vrica GSSP was based on neither Gelasian; and there should be a Holocene above clear-cut bioevents nor climatic criteria (Partridge the Pleistocene. This was anything but tidy. 1997, p. 8), an earlier date for the boundary was Details of the comings and goings of the debate sought, particularly in the light of the discovery of may be found at www.quaternary.stratigraphy. the arrival of organisms indicative of a cold org.uk/meetings/Quat_TaskGroup_25Aug05.doc: climate in the Mediterranean region prior to Definition and geochronologic/chronostratigraphic 1.8 Ma. Thus, the Gauss–Matuyama reversal at rank of the term Quaternary. Recommendations 2.6 Ma has been suggested as a suitable boundary of the Quaternary Task Group jointly of the Inter- (Pillans & Naish 2004). Although glaciation is national Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS, of known to have occurred in some parts of the the International Union of Geological Sciences, world earlier than 2.6 Ma, this geomagnetic reversal IUGS) and the International Union for Quaternary meshes with determinable biostratigraphic changes Research (INQUA). The issue had to do with the indicative of climate change, a clearly identifiable problem of synthesizing different dating methods event in oxygen-isotope stratigraphy (Shackleton and the various overt institutional and invisible 1997), and changes in grain size in Chinese loess networks of members of different research fields. deposits. The chosen golden spike, in Sicily, for The debates were not confined to the Anglophone the bottom of the new Gelasian Stage of the community. The Chinese Association for Quatern- Upper Pliocene is thought to be only about 20 ka ary Research (2005), based on the significance of younger than the Gauss–Matuyama reversal (Rio Chinese loess deposits, supported the INQUA pos- et al. 1998, p. 85), so the fit is good. Moreover, ition, and maintained that the Quaternary ‘should the climatic deterioration could be related to a be a formal unit with full Period/System status in change from the dominance of orbital precession geological time work’ with a base at 2.6 Ma. In to that of the obliquity of the ecliptic, according 2007, the Chinese President of the IUGS (Zhang to Milankovic´ theory (Lourens & Hilgen 1997; Hongren) wrote to the bickering chairs of the Maslin et al. 1998). relevant ICS subcommissions, as well as the ICS But to place the base of the Pleistocene at Executive, telling them, in effect, to co-ordinate 2.6 Ma would take the Quaternary down to the their activities and formulate a solution ready for bottom of the uppermost (Gelasian) stage of the ratification by the IGC in Oslo in 2008. (The letter, Pliocene (Fig. 1). Alternatively, it would require a and many other relevant documents, may be decoupling of the Pleistocene from the Quaternary; viewed at http://www.quaternary.stratigraphy.org. yet, both have long been associated in geoscientists’ uk.) And as it appears at the time of writing, the minds with the ‘glacial epoch’. In consequence, Quaternary will survive as a received stratigraphic some authorities have proposed that the term ‘Qua- unit (Period or System) with its base at 2.6 Ma, the ternary’ should be dropped from the stratigraphic Pleistocene and Holocene being its constituent column (e.g. Berggren 1998). In Berggren’s view, Series or Epochs (Bowen & Gibbard 2007) (Fig. 1). it should (or would or could) only survive ‘for geo- Future changes notwithstanding, the term Qua- political purposes’! The issue has been particularly ternary is used in this Special Publication to refer sensitive because Quaternary studies are such a well- to the Pleistocene and the Holocene, the latter established branch of geoscience, with the Inter- denoting the last 10000 radiocarbon years (11.5 ka national Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA) calendar years), which is approximately equivalent Downloaded from

Age Italian Eratherm/ System/Period Series/Epoch Correlation Era (Base) Stages

Holocene Holocene 11.6 ka 11.6 ka http://sp.lyellcollection.org/

~130 ka (Late) Eemian Stage

Pleistocene

0.78 Ma (Middle) Matuyama–Brunhes INTRODUCTION AN Pleistocene Reversal Calabrian

Quaternary 1.8 Ma Neogene

Cenozoic Gauss–Matuyama Gelasian byguestonOctober1,2021 2.6 Ma 2.6 Ma (Early) Reversal Pliocene

Pliocene 3.6 Ma Piacenzian

International Commission of Stratigraphy (2004)

Bowen & Gibbard (2007)

Fig. 1. Age of base of the Pleistocene and status of the Neogene–Quaternary periods after the International Commission of Stratigraphy (2004) (Gradstein et al. 2004) and Bowen & Gibbard (2007). 9 Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on October 1, 2021

10 D. R. OLDROYD & R. H. GRAPES to the end of the last ice age and the emergence of Modern ice sheets and glaciers are but shrunken civilized humans. remnants of their former areal extents, but the Stratigraphically, then, the Quaternary is subdi- interpretation of the deposits left behind by the ice vided on the basis of climate into cold (glacial) and the landforms shaped by the moving ice has and warm (interglacial) stages. Global landscapes been greatly facilitated by research on modern gla- cannot be explained without reference to these ciers and by imaginative theoretical ideas. The first alternations of cold and warmth associated with systematic explorations and studies of the Quatern- the repeated alternations of ice advance into, and ary Period were carried out in Europe and North retreat from, middle latitudes of the northern hemi- America, because by happy coincidence these sphere. For example, alternations of wetter and drier were glaciated lands where the geological sciences conditions during the Pleistocene in the present initially blossomed and where social conditions deserts of the northern hemisphere reflect the encouraged travel and research. The knowledge of pervading influence of climate changes that led, glacier motion and the recognition of glacial and farther north, to glacial and interglacial conditions. interglacial deposits that flowed from this research Similar conditions occurred in the southern hemi- have proved invaluable to the understanding of sphere, but there the potential impacts of climate Quaternary events elsewhere, for example in change have been cushioned by the dominance of Africa, Australia and South America. Similarly, oceans, such that during cold stages nival and early observations in the northern hemisphere aeolian effects often take precedence over actual regarding changing sea levels, now attributed to a glaciation, although multiple glaciations have variety of climatic and tectonic forces, paved the been identified in Tasmania and Patagonia. The way for sophisticated studies of Quaternary land– development of ice sheets in high latitudes also sea relationships elsewhere in the world. caused the migration and compression of other The Quaternary Period is important for many climatic zones towards the equator so that nival or reasons. For the geologist, it affords insight into periglacial conditions extended well beyond their relatively recent events that also contribute to the present limits. The climate changes were such understanding of the more distant past. For the cli- that even in low latitudes many glaciers developed matologist, it presents evidence of past climates in a on the mountains of Papua New Guinea, Borneo, world beset with problems associated with continu- the tropical Andes and East Africa. Also, ing climate change. For biologists and soil scien- glacio-eustatic changes in sea level are global tists, events during the Quaternary help to explain events. Thus, the climatic changes of the Quate- much of the Earth’s present plant and animal distri- rnary had worldwide impacts. butions, and its soils, which are so important Nevertheless, remnants of older landscapes per- to agriculture. sisted in regions beyond the reach of glaciers, and The Quaternary has also seen the continued even in glaciated areas major preglacial features evolution of Homo sapiens. Some human impacts survived the passage of ice sheets, which, although have been deleterious. As with climatic changes, scraping away loose debris, made only minor modi- their importance can be exaggerated but cannot be fications to bedrock forms. ignored. Without the advent of the human mind The environmental changes of the Quaternary there would be no Quaternary, for the System have been influenced in part by the continued (like all the units in the stratigraphic column) is a migration of Earth’s continental and oceanic human construct – in this case the latest of plates, albeit at much slower rates than climate several known periods of climatic aberration. change, and by episodes of greater or lesser volca- nicity, which often ejected large quantities of climate-changing tephra into the atmosphere. The papers Nevertheless, for most of the climate changes experienced in the Quaternary, there is now broad The papers contained in the present volume do not consensus that changes in Earth–Sun relations are pretend to cover every aspect of the innumerable broadly responsible, accompanied and aided by components of geomorphology or Quaternary complex feedback mechanisms including ocean– geology, but they touch upon many and in a atmosphere and biosphere–atmosphere linkages. number of cases deal with topics that are not gener- Thus, variations in the eccentricity of Earth’s ally known to those interested in these branches orbit, the obliquity of its axis relative to the plane of geoscience. of the ecliptic and the precession of the equinoxes For the first paper in the present collection, have caused cyclic changes, within periods of Klemun, an historian of science at the Institute of about 100, 41 and 21 ka, respectively, onto which History, Vienna University, Austria, explores the shorter, more rapid fluctuations have been contributions of Adolphe Morlot to the establish- superimposed. ment of the term ‘Quaternary’. Both he and Jules Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on October 1, 2021

AN INTRODUCTION 11

Desnoyers have been credited with introducing the devotees of the use of ‘coherence’ as a criterion in term, but, in fact, they did so independently, at the pragmatic pursuit of truth, the virtues of which different times and places. Desnoyers simply approach are well illustrated by the Great Scablands wanted to give a name to distinctive strata that lay Debate. Baker was the keynote speaker at the above those that Arduino had named Tertiary Vilnius meeting. back in the eighteenth century. Morlot’s proposal The paper by Antony Orme on the Quaternary came later and for quite different reasons. He pluvial lakes of the American West is detailed, found evidence in Switzerland for two distinct but at the same time offers a wide historical glacial episodes, separated by deposits that sweep, from the observations of the early European suggested a milder climate: an interglacial as we explorers in the region to the issues arising from the would say. These three sets of sediments, together use of modern dating methods in the study of these with those of recent times, gave four ‘layers’. lakes. Formerly, the study of the history of such Hence, the name Quaternary. Professor Klemun’s lakes may have seemed a somewhat esoteric under- work is a result of her interest in the historical taking, but in more recent years it has come to be a development of scientific classificatory terms. matter of considerable practical concern, both from The papers by Baker (Department of Hydrology the perspective of water supplies and of data rel- and Water Resources, University of Arizona, evant to current problems relating to climate Tucson, USA) and Orme (Department of Geogra- change. Here, then, is a case where the study of phy, University of California, Los Angeles, USA) the history of geology turns out to have practical discuss issues relating to the Quaternary geology value to contemporary problems. The problem of and geomorphology of large parts of western understanding the history of these pluvial lakes is North America, of which both authors have detailed complex because there have been several indepen- knowledge. Readers are likely to be familiar with dent causal factors involved in their history, such the ‘Great Scablands Debate’ (Gould 1978), as rainfall, temperature, erosion and crustal defor- which had to do with certain features of the topogra- mation. Orme’s paper is also valuable, for the pur- phy of eastern Washington where gigantic ripple poses of the present collection, in that it attends to marks, too large to be discerned from a single issues relating to dating in the Quaternary. vantage point on the ground, suggested to the The theory of continental glaciation, beginning Chicago geologist J Harlen Bretz (1882–1981) from observations of ‘living glaciers’ and areas pre- that they had been produced by ‘catastrophic’ flood- viously occupied by ice in the Swiss Alps, was ing. Joseph T. Pardee (1871–1960) had previously worked out independently by Otto Torell (1828– suggested large-scale flooding produced by the 1900) (in 1872), Piotr Kropotkin (1842–1921) unblocking of a lake ponded by a glacier (Pardee (between 1862 and 1876) and others in northern 1910). Bretz’s fieldwork in the 1920s suggested Europe, to which workers in the Baltic States that there had, indeed, been some such ‘cata- made significant contributions. Raukas at the Insti- strophic’ cause; and, in fact, the hypothesis that tute of Geology at Tallinn University of Techno- was eventually accepted was somewhat akin to logy, Estonia, describes contributions to the the one suggested long before in the nineteenth evolution of the continental glaciation theory by century, by Leopold von Buch, to account for the (amongst others): Karl Eduard Eichwald (1795– movement of erratics in the Alpine valleys, which 1876), the first person in the Baltic provinces to was also later adopted by the ‘uniformitarian’ consider the possibility of the wide distribution of Charles Lyell. Yet (ironically), Lyell’s ‘uniformi- ice in lowland areas in 1853; Friedrich Schmidt tarian’ programme became so successful that any (1832–1908), who studied the Quaternary deposits seeming ‘catastrophist’ theory, such as appeared of Estonia, demonstrating a correlation with those to be suggested by Bretz’s observations, was dis- in Sweden in 1865; and the Estonian stratigrapher missed for a long time. Gregor Helmersen (or Gelmerson) (1803–1885) The intricacies of this interesting debate are (who became Director of the St Petersburg carefully traced by Victor Baker, who used to Mining Academy), who rejected the drift hypoth- know Bretz personally and so knows his side of esis in favour of a continental ice sheet in 1869 on the story well. Baker’s account also includes refer- the basis of the distribution of erratic boulders, ence to the philosophical issues involved: the reluc- glacial clay and striations. It was Schmidt, in tance of geologists in America in Bretz’s time to 1871, who proved that during the Pleistocene the countenance anything that hinted at catastrophism; Scandinavian ice sheet covered the Baltic Sea and the American preference at that time for what depression and surrounding territories, and thereby might be called naive empiricism. For Baker, resolved the early controversy over continental however, a theory that ‘binds together’ a number glaciation in northern Europe. of distinctive facts (giving a consilience of induc- Milanovsky is one of the ‘grand old men’ of tions) has much to recommend it. He (and we) are Russian geology and a former head of department Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on October 1, 2021

12 D. R. OLDROYD & R. H. GRAPES at the Moscow State University. He comes from a economic and social conditions, establishment of family of distinguished geologists and has led a science centres, progress of geological thought, remarkable life, including fighting with a tank unit and the natural environment. Quaternary geological from Moscow to Berlin during the Great Patriotic investigations in the Baltic region were, and War! He has recounted that, when he was a young continue to be, an important link between the East man, he did not know whether he wished to study and West in northern Europe. Among the lineage art or geology but in the end he opted for of those involved in Quaternary research, the contri- geology. Yet, his facility for drawing has been butions of the Lithuanian geologist Cˇ eslovas retained through his long career, and in this paper Pakuckas (1898–1956) to glaciomorphological we see numerous examples of his quick sketches investigations of the Baltic marginal highlands in made during the course of his fieldwork. His Lithuania and Poland are documented by the special area of interest has been neotectonics; and paper by Gaigalas et al. Pakuckas, who is regarded for the purposes of this Special Publication as a pioneer of modern glaciomorphological inves- volume his ‘proof’ of the occurrence of glaciation tigations, concluded that during the last glaciation in the Pliocene is particularly interesting, as it con- the continental glacier was not a single ice sheet tributed evidence that was relevant to the changes but consisted of a number of flows, each dependent of definition of the Quaternary and the Pleistocene on topography and each with its specific glacial that were discussed earlier in this introduction. centre. A section of organic-rich sediments that he Milanovsky’s use of the term ‘Eopleistocene’ in discovered on the banks of the Nemunas River his stratigraphic table should be noted, as that has has recently become the stratotype of the Eemian been the preferred term in Russia, as opposed to Interglacial in Lithuania. Lower Pleistocene. The present paper is to be Kondratiene˙ & Stancˇikaite˙ at the Institute of understood as an autobiographical contribution to Geology and Geography at Vilnius, Lithuania, the study of the history of Quaternary geology. evaluate the contributions of another Lithuanian Ivanova & Markin, from the Earth Science scientist, Valerija Cˇ epulyte˙ (1904–1987). During Museum of Moscow State University, Russia, 46 years of research, she deciphered different give an overview of a work by the famous anarchist aspects of Quaternary stratigraphy, palaeogeogra- philosopher, Prince Piotr Kropotkin: Researches on phy, the extent of the last glacial event (Weichse- the Glacial Period (1876). This book is virtually lian) and deglaciation in Lithuania, studies that unknown to Anglophones and there appears to be provided the framework for her 1968 doctorate no copy of it in either the Library of Congress or degree in geology. Cˇ epulyte˙’s primary interests the British Library. It is, we are told, a rare were concerned with the development of geomor- volume, even in Russia. Kropotkin’s book Mutual phological terminology and the methodology of Aid (1902) is well known in the West and makes geomorphological mapping in relation to the reference to his travels in Siberia. Early in his last glaciation – aspects that have influenced Qua- career he travelled in that part of the world as a mili- ternary research both in Lithuania and elsewhere. tary surveyor, and later he went to Scandinavia, as a A former petroleum geologist, van Veen at the result of which he became interested in the ‘land-ice Department of Earth Sciences, Technical theory’. His recognition of the evidence for glacia- University Delft, The Netherlands, writes about tion was not remarkable at the time of his travels, early ideas on glaciation in The Netherlands, using but his studies of eskers were noteworthy and orig- as his ‘spyglass’ the several essays on ideas about inal. Researches on the Glacial Period was written glaciation that were submitted as entries to prize when Kropotkin was in prison in St Petersburg on competitions organized by the Hollandsche account of his subversive political views, before Maatschappij der Wetenschappen (Holland Society he made his dramatic escape to the West. It is pleas- of Sciences) and the Teyler Genootschap (Teyler ing that his scientific investigations, so different Society). In the nineteenth century, such prize com- from his well-known philosophical and political petitions were popular, with questions being posed writings, should be recognized here. Kropotkin’s about controversial scientific problems, for which work also shows that there was not a huge differ- there were no known or definite answers. Several ence between ‘Eastern’ and ‘Western’ science in prize topics had to do with glacial theory, and even- his day. Unfortunately, not a great deal is known tually they yielded a submission from the Swedish in the West about early Russian geology and the geologist Otto Torell that clinched the land-ice commonalities are not sufficiently recognized. theory for geologists in Germany and northern Ideas associated with the development of Europe, although he did not originate this idea. Quaternary research in the Baltic countries are van Veen’s paper is helpful in that he delves into a also chronicled by Gaigalas from the Department corner of the history of geoscience that can only be of Geology and Mineralogy at Vilnius University, studied by someone fluent in Dutch and with Lithuania, in terms of their geopolitical position, access to rare publications in that language. Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on October 1, 2021

AN INTRODUCTION 13

Zhang, Associate Professor in the Department Australian geology was, as might be expected, of Earth Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangz- seen through European eyes. hou, China, is involved in research in tectonic geo- Twidale is a geomorphologist of international morphology, particularly in the Ordos Plateau area standing and Honorary Visiting Fellow in Geology of north China. He documents the punctuated and Geophysics at the School of Earth and progress of 100 years of investigation of Tertiary Environmental Sciences at Adelaide University, (Neogene) planation surfaces in China. This began Australia. He is the author of numerous books on with the pioneering work of Bailey Willis in geomorphology and has a special interest is desert 1903–1904, who introduced the Davisian idea of landscapes, particularly in Australia. His paper erosion cycles and recognized peneplain remnants provides much information about the character of in north China. Zhang documents studies of plana- Australian deserts (which are notably different tion surfaces in that part of the world between from those in North Africa or China, say, and can 1910 and the 1940s, in which scientists arrived at at times provide brief nutriment for abundant life different and similar conclusions as to their ages, forms) and the early history of exploration in these and the discovery of similar surface remnants in mostly inhospitable regions. He focuses on the south China, prompted by the inland migration history of the study of the dunes of the Australian caused by the southward advance of Japanese deserts, and those of South Australia more particu- forces prior to and during World War II. Since the larly. Like Orme, Twidale also discusses dating 1970s, restudy of planation surfaces over the problems – but as regards individual sand grains whole of China has been undertaken with the con- using thermoluminescence methods as opposed to temporary focus being on uplift of the Tibetan the radiometric studies of materials chiefly used in Plateau and its impact on the environment. studying the pluvial lakes of the American West. Thick marine Quaternary sediments underlying Some of the Australian dunes are only a few the Kanto Plain of Honshu, Japan are regarded as thousand years old and thus presumably Holocene having been deposited in a ‘Palaeo-Tokyo Bay’, a in age. The dating of the lake-fill and alluviation concept first proposed by Hisakatsu Yabe (1878– of the Australian desert lakes has furnished infor- 1969) in 1913 and 1914, based on molluscan mation about the histories of past climates, which fossils that record changing sea levels during the is relevant to biogeography and contemporary glacial and interglacial periods. Yajima, from the problems of climate change. Tokyo Medical and Dental University, describes Oldroyd, Honorary Visiting Professor at the how this now-accepted idea came about in conjunc- University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, tion with resolution of the question of Pleistocene is a historian of science who has written chiefly on glaciation in Japan and a change from Palaeo- topics to do with the Earth sciences. In his contri- Tokyo Bay being open to the east and, at the time bution, he examines the history of ideas about the of the high sea-level phase, and perhaps also to landforms of the Sydney Basin, with special the south, to modern Tokyo Bay which opens to reference to the patterns of the area’s rivers, and the south. considers two important early twentieth-century Branagan, at the School of Geosciences, Australian geologists: Ernest Andrews and Griffith University of Sydney, Australia, is the doyen of Taylor. Both men were keen disciples of the historians of geology in Australia. His paper gives evolutionary ideas about landforms developed by a comprehensive account of the earliest studies of Davis in the United States, whose ideas were the rocks of the Australian coastline and, sub- enthusiastically applied in Australasia. From the sequently, in inland regions as explorers pushed appearance of a geological map, the geology of into the continent’s interior. There they encountered the Sydney area appears very simple, but detailed many hardships in the desert regions, but were also work has revealed numerous difficulties and com- able to make numerous observations of Quaternary plexities. Early studies of the area relied heavily deposits in well-exposed country. In the first stages, on geomorphological considerations, which were all the information was transferred to ‘centres of used to try to probe the tectonic history of the calculation’ (cf. Latour 1987, chap. 6) in Europe area. Unfortunately, surfaces that were construed and published there. Subsequently, geologists by Taylor and Andrews as being the relics of began to settle in Australia and publish there, Davisian peneplains were (we think) depositional even though they had mostly been trained in surfaces or ones that were generated according Europe. Thus, Branagan’s paper illustrates the first to the relative hardnesses of nearly horizontal two stages of ‘Colonial Science’, as envisaged by sedimentary strata. Oldroyd shows that, even George Basalla in his threefold classification of now, there is no full consensus about the history the stages of development of science in European of the Sydney Basin, and that debates on the colonies or settlements (Basalla 1967). In the matter still depend to a considerable degree on early work described by Branagan, much of geomorphological evidence. Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on October 1, 2021

14 D. R. OLDROYD & R. H. GRAPES

Mayer, at the Department of Earth and Marine glaciation and uplift in the axial Tararua Range of Sciences, Australian National University in Can- the North Island. Adkin’s work was published in berra, is an authority on early scientific voyages to 1911 and helped resolve a controversy over the Australia, especially those conducted by French extent of glaciation in New Zealand, although his explorers. His paper relates to the Tamala ideas, in this instance, ran counter to those of Limestone, a well-known Quaternary formation Charles Cotton. Later studies have broadly that crops out extensively along the coast of vindicated Adkin’s work. It has been postulated Western Australia. Work continues on the study that cooling of some 4 8C could have occurred of this unit, which presents problems with respect during the Pleistocene, resulting in a lowering of to sea-level and climate change, and the role of tec- the glacier equilibrium line by approximately tonic deformations of the crust in that part of the 670 m, substantially below the crest of the world. It is noteworthy that the early investigators Tararua Range. were struck by the indications of changes in the relative levels of land and sea, which was a ‘hot We wish to express our sincere thanks to the valuable topic’ in the early nineteenth century. Other comments on a draft of this Introduction made by the matters of interest were the discovery of the contributors of this volume. We are particularly grate- ‘living fossil’, Trigonia, which gave comfort to ful to R. Twidale, A. Orme and V. Baker for their considerable input. those opposed to the notion of transmutation because it indicated the possibility that various organisms no longer extant in Europe might turn up one day in remote parts of the world; and to References certain enigmatic calcareous structures that might have had various origins. It was Darwin who first ADHE´ MAR, J. 1842. Evolutions de la mer: de´luges pe´riod- suggested that the Tamala Limestone was of iques. Carilian-Goery & Dalmont, Paris. aeolian origin. AGASSIZ, L. 1840. Etudes sur les glaciers; par L. Agassiz. From New Zealand, a biography of the inter- Ouvrage accompagne´ d’un atlas de 32 planches. Jent et Gassmann, Neuchaˆtel. nationally known geomorphologist Sir Charles AGUIRRE,E.&PASSINI, G. 1985. The Pliocene– Cotton (1885–1970) is given by Grapes, a New Pleistocene boundary. Episodes, 8, 116–120. Zealander, now Professor at Korea University, ARDUINO, G. 1760. Due lettere del Sig. Giovanni Arduino Seoul, and formerly at Sun Yat-sen University, sopra varie sue osservazioni naturali. Al chiaris. Sig. China, and Victoria University, Wellington, New Antonio Vallisneri ... Vicenza. Nuovo raccolto Zealand, where he had first-hand access to and d’opusculi scientifici e filologici, 6, 99–180. experience of Cotton’s legacy. Cotton is perhaps BAKER, V. R. 1977. Stream channel responses to floods best known for his textbooks, the most influential with examples from central Texas. Geological being Geomorphology of New Zealand, first pub- Society of America Bulletin, 89, 198–208. BAKER, V. R. 1996. The pragmatic roots of American lished in 1922, as well as numerous pioneering Quaternary geology and geomorphology. Geomor- papers on a great variety of subjects in geomorphol- phology, 16, 197–221. ogy. Although much of Cotton’s earlier work fol- BASALLA, G. 1967. The spread of Western science. lowed the ideas of W. M. 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AN INTRODUCTION 15

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AN INTRODUCTION 17

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