American Geomorphology at the Dawn of the 20th Century

Abstract

A geomorphologist, William Morris Davis, founded the Association of American Geographers in 1904. Today, a century later, it is timely to reflect on the nature of geomorphology so long ago, on paths taken and paths ignored. By 1904, the heroic age of American geomorphology, of the western explorations, had passed. Powell was dead, Dutton was retired and ill, and Gilbert seemed destined at the time for lonely retirement. In their stead, Davis strode the field like a colossus. His cycle of erosion, nurtured for 20 years, fit well into the evolutionary dogma of the age. With its emphasis on time, the perceived relevance of structure and process atrophied. While Earth's main relief features were still attributed mainly to a cooling and contracting planet, Dutton's isostasy and Taylor's mobilism received short shrift. In any case, depending on who one believed, Earth was only 20 to 400 million years old. Furthermore despite advances in mechanics and applied sciences, geomorphic processes were largely ignored. This was soon to change—from an expanding time scale based on radioactive decay, a reinvigorated Gilbert's field studies and flume experiments, Udden's work on wind, and advances in geodesy, geophysics, hydrology, and scientific methodology. That these advances lingered so long in the wings was more a reflection of the restrictive Davisian stage than of the many paths potentially open to geomorphology as the 20th century dawned.

Keywords:

• geomorphology
• Earth-science theory
• history of science