Antiquity of landforms: An ‘extremely unlikely’ concept vindicated

Abstract

Both commonsense and the authority of many eminent geologists, beginning with James Hutton, suggest that the Earth's land surfaces are youthful. Yet for the past half century or more palaeosurfaces have been recognised, and compelling evidence adduced pointing to their great antiquity, not only in Australia and Africa but also, and in lesser measure, in the Americas and Europe. Furthermore, coincident with the discovery of these old palaeoforms, factors conducive to their survival were independently suggested. Despite this, land surfaces continued to be seen as youthful and in many respects this remains the conventional view. Why the intellectual breakthroughs implied by the recognition of very old palaeosurfaces occurred in the New World are discussed, as are the possible reasons many geomorphologists remain unconvinced of the great antiquity of land‐forms. The implications of the antiquity of land surfaces in the broader geological context are briefly mentioned.

Key words:

• dating
• erosion
• exhumed surfaces
• landforms
• land surfaces
• palaeoforms.