Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on October 1, 2021 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.