319

Climatic geomorphology: a critique

C.R. Twidale and Y. Lageat
Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Adelaide, Adelaide,
Australia
Université Blaise Pascal and URA 1562 of the CNRS, Clermont-Ferrand,
France

Abstract: Though climatic geomorphology has long been perceived as providing a realistic
framework for landform analysis, only the arid, nival and glacial systems and some constructional
forms on the coast are readily identified in the landscape, present and past, as climatically zonal in
character. Of course these features together account for a substantial part of the Earth’s land surface
at present. Nevertheless, the remaining areas have been subdivided into morphogenetic regions said
to be characterized by distinctive landform assemblages. Even in those regions shaped by distinctive
climatically driven processes, however, structural forms and those of etch origin are significant
components, as they are also in humid tropical and midlatitude lands. In addition, various
landforms are shaped by processes and mechanisms which, though climatically generated, vary
genetically, and are active in a wide range of conventionally delineated climatic regions. They
transgress arbitrary climatic boundaries. The climatic factor in landform development is by no
means as clear cut and simple as was once thought and is certainly not of over-riding importance

over at least half the world’s land surface.

I Introduction

During this century, geomorphology has been dominated by the thesis that landform
development is largely controlled by climate. Structural factors have been widely acknowl-
edged and then forgotten, possibly because they were perceived as being self-evident. The
evolutionary, cyclic concepts of Davis (1899) and especially King (1942; 1953) have been,
and are, important components of geomorphological analysis, but to realize the pervasive
influence of the climatic thesis one has only to examine the organization of most
geomorphological texts, with their chapters on ’the landscape in aridity’, the effects
wrought by glaciers, periglacial landforms, contrasts between arid and humid lands, the
normal cycle and the like, and to note the discussion of inselbergs, pediments and alluvial
fans, for example, in the context of particular (in these instances, arid, semi-arid) climatic
conditions.
It was Davis himself who formally suggested arid and glacial landscape cycles additional
to the normal or humid temperate (Davis, 1905; 1906), but the climatic concept was

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rapidly adopted and developed by European geographers, and notably by de Martonne

(1913), Passarge (1926), Thorbecke (1927) and Sapper (1935). The concept finds its first
formal expression in English rather later, with Peltier’s (1950) well-known exemplification
of the periglacial cycle as a morphogenetic region and his all-embracing exposition and
justification of the climatic concept. By then, however, the notion was already implicit in
the organization of many earlier texts in English and was indeed the basis of books like
Cotton’s splendid Climatic accidents (1948). In addition, the thesis of climatic control finds
overt acknowledgement, justification and expression in the series collectively known as the
Trait6 de Giomorphologie (Tricart and Cailleux, 1962-69), in collections like that of
Derbyshire (1973), and in texts like those of Thomas (1974) and Faniran and Jeje ( 1983).
Bfdel’s several papers and book (1977; see also Kiewiet de Jonge, 1984) provide not only
a superb exposition of the morphogenetic theme but also add another dimension with the

concept of climatomorphogenetic regions, or regions dominated by various (supposedly)

climatically related landform assemblages: glaciated, with frost action; glaciated but with
valley incision; extratropical regions dominated by valleys; subtropical pediment domi-
nated landscapes; and tropical planation surfaces (Büdel, 1961; 1963). Climatically based
interpretations have been applied to terrains dominated by particular rock types, such as
limestone (Lehmann et al., 1954) and granite (Wilhelmy, 1958), and to coastlines (Davies,
1964). An earlier review of climatic geomorphology is provided by Stoddart (1969).
The assumptions underlying the thesis of climatic control are simple and persuasive.
Various climatic factors, and particularly temperature, precipitation and wind, induce the
operation of specific processes together known as the morphogenetic or geomorphic
system. They produce landforms and landform assemblages that are typical of and peculiar
to the particular climatic regime. Such climatically based landform assemblages are known
as morphogenetic regions. The concept had and has special appeal for geographers, for the

morphogenetic system was perceived as having the potential to become a unifying theme
linking climate, land surface, soil, vegetation and hence in some measure fauna and land
use. In terms of morphogenetic systems a map of climatic regions in effect, and to a greater
or lesser degree, becomes, a map of geographical regions.

Desert, glacial and possibly also the periglacial or nival, morphogenetic regions are
readily recognized in the landscape. Together they occupy about 50% of the land areas. All
are distinctive by virtue of landform assemblages that are essentially related to existing
climatic regimes, are of recent origin and which are unique either in type or scale. Such
coastal features as coral reefs, fiords and the strandflat have a zonal distribution. In the
broader, continental context, considerable dunefields are developed in coastal and nival
regions (e.g., Seppala, 1972) but only in the midlatitude deserts are there really extensive
fields of dunes. Moreover, only here are barchans and linear, or longitudinal forms,
developed. Relic desert, nival and glacial forms occupy large areas of the present humid
and temperate lands (e.g., Grove, 1958; Andr6, 1991) and such features as pingos also
occur beyond the present nival range (e.g., Pissart, 1963). But such inherited forms serve

only to reinforce the morphogenetic concept for they demonstrate climatic control in past
eras.

What, however, of the remaining 50% of the land areas not embraced and shaped by
modern glacial, nival or desert systems? They too are widely held to be subdivided into
morphogenetic regions (selvas, savannas, temperate lands, boreal and maritime regions,
according to author) which reflect various and varied geomorphic systems induced by
climatic conditions, and which allegedly display distinctive landform assemblages. The
following comments apply particularly to these humid regions, though they are also

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relevant to the regions affected by ’climatic accidents’.

First, however, several vulgar adverse criticisms have been levelled at the concept of
morphogenetic regions. They are readily dismissed. For instance, difficulties with grada-
tional and temporally varying zones rather than sharp and constant boundaries merely
reflect natural conditions. Peltier’s suggestion that running water is not important in
shaping desert landscapes simply reflected a limited knowledge of deserts and of the desert
literature (e.g., Peel, 1941). Such commentaries and the ease with which they are refuted
or resolved ought not, however, to be allowed to disguise the very real problems posed by

landscapes in terms of climatic control and morphogenetic regions. They can be

considered under three headings: structural impacts; the etch factor; and mechanisms and
processes which, though climatically induced, are in detail generated in response to
different climatic conditions and transgress climatic boundaries. Structural impacts are
well known, and the unifying effects of fluvial activity and other surface and near-surface
waters are alluded to by some, though not by most, while the implications of etching have
only recently been explored (Twidale, 1990a; 1990b) . Yet examples of each are developed
in most of our conventionally defined climatic regions.

11 Structural impacts
Structural impacts are both active and passive, major and minor, obvious and subtle, and
the distribution and characteristics of a wide range of structural landforms are the result of
factors totally unrelated to present or past climates (see Yatsu, 1966; Sparks, 1971;
Gerrard, 1988). For example, the distribution of volcanoes is related either to the location
and type of plate boundary or to mantle plumes and associated hotspots. The development
of ancient volcanic provinces can be linked to the trajectories of the host land masses over
hotspots (see, e.g., Duncan, 1991). Moreover, the morphology and eruptive character-
istics of volcanoes varies with lava composition (which in turn varies with type of plate
junction). The timing of volcanic activity varies with regional stress patterns.
Similarly, the character of orogenic belts and the fold mountains developed on them
varies with palaeogeography and tectonics, according to sediment source and conditions of
deposition in the ancestral basins or troughs, pre-existing structure and relief in the
depositional basins, and stress conditions during orogenesis. Thus the major ridges of the
central and southern Flinders Ranges, in the arid/semi-arid interior of South Australia, are
underlain by sandstone, the character and variations in thickness of which are related
partly to the predominantly granitic character of the source area to the west (the Australian
Shield), partly to the easterly flow of rivers on to the then continental shelf and slope,
resulting in thick quartzitic formations and hence in massive ridges and ranges on the
western side of the upland. Crustal stress has also caused the development of faults with
the result that fault-generated forms, whether tectonic or structural, are the same the world
over so that the Great Rift Valley of central Africa is structurally and morphologically
similar to, albeit at a different scale from, the Lake George Rift of Upper New York State,
those developed in the American west, and in the upper Rhine valley in western Europe.
At a more local scale, fracture patterns related to crustal stress constitute perhaps the
most significant single structural control of landform development (e.g., Birot, 1952;
Rognon, 1967). Hence, for example, the widespread and climatically azonal formation of
bomhardts in rock types that vary in composition and texture but which are consistently
massive with well developed orthogonal fracture sets (e.g., Godard, 1977; Twidale, 1982;

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1987; Lageat, 1989). In some instances the patterns of fracture are demonstrably of some

antiquity. Thus in the Gawler Ranges, in the interior of South Australia, the orthogonal
systems which form the basis of the bornhardts of the dacitic massif are of Late Proterozoic
age (Campbell and Twidale, 1991). Similarly, lineaments of regional extent and of Late
Proterozoic age have determined the shape of the fragments - the present continents - that
resulted from the break-up of the ancient Laurasia and Gondwana supercontinents. Thus
not only the present outline of Australia but also the orientation of many major features
(river courses, outlines of uplands and basin plains) within the continent reflect the
presence of lineaments which in turn are related to stresses developed during earlier cycles
of plate disintegration, migration and welding (see, e.g., Meinesz, 1947; Hills, 1946; 1955;
1956; 1961; Nance et al., 1988).
Fractures form avenues along which meteoric waters and groundwaters infiltrate and
circulate, altering the rocks with which they come into contact. They give rise to corestones
and boulders, and to many bornhardts or convex upward (domical) residuals in granite,
gneiss, limestone, sandstone and conglomerate. In each case, the plan size and shape are
partly determined by fracture pattern (time being the other major factor). Where fracture
patterns vary, so do the landforms developed on them. Thus penitent rocks (Bussersteine -
see Ackermann, 1962) are characteristic of schist and gneiss terrains (see, e.g., Turner,

1952) and stand in stark contrast with the rounded residuals typical of granite exposures.
Fracture-controlled clefts or Kluftkarren are the result of the preferential weathering and
erosion of fracture zones. They are developed at various scales, in various bedrocks and in
various climatic conditions. On the other hand, fractures allow meteoric waters to
percolate through the rock mass. For massifs located above the water table, a well
developed system of open partings may have a preservative or protective function (Twidale
and Campbell, 1993).
Composition is an obvious factor determining the distribution of weathering and erosion
(e.g., Petit, 1971), but it also has subtle effects. Thus some inselbergs of French Guyana
have been attributed to their being underlain by leucogranite lacking biotite and hence
more resistant that the rock in which the surrounding plains are eroded (Hurault, 1963).

Lamego (1938) attributed the vertical western face of the Pao de Assugar, bordering the
Bahia Guanabara, to its being coincident with the interface between a bed of biotite gneiss
and the lenticular gneiss which forms the mass of the residual. Dumanowski (1968)
pointed out that though the granites of the Karkonosze Mountains of southern Poland vary
in composition, all are lacking in biotite and are for that reason resistant (see also Birot,
1950; Isherwood and Street, 1976). Lagasquie (1984) has pointed to petrological
differentiation in granitoids in the Pyrenees, and to their morphological expressions.
Several workers have drawn attention to compositional and textural contrasts between
inselbergs and adjacent plains in Africa - Thorp (1969) and Selby (1977), for example,
pointing to the presence of granitic uplands and schist plains in the Air Mountains of the
southern Sahara and Namibia, respectively.
Stress, either residual or applied has been invoked in explanation of a suite of minor
forms, developed mainly in granite (e.g., Jennings and Twidale, 1971; Peterson, 1975;
Twidale and Sved, 1978), but also reported from other lithological settings. A-tents are
developed in cold lands like Labrador as well as hot arid and semi-arid regions of Australia.
Such features continue to develop (Coates, 1964; Bowling and Woodward, 1979;
Twidale, 1986), those in natural situations possibly triggered by minor seismic events.
Earth tremors also play a significant role in the initiation of landslides and other forms of
mass movement. Thus, not only did the earthquake that hit the San Fernando Valley of

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southern California in February 1971 cause more than 1000 landslides in a single square
kilometre (Morton, 1971) but also the landslides formed in the Bewani and Torricelli
mountains of northern New Guinea in 1935 were almost certainly triggered by earth
tremors (Simonett, 1967). The notable feature of this last observation is that abundance of
landforms associated with mass movements was cited by Peltier (1950) as the most
characteristic feature of the selvas or humid tropical morphogenetic region; perhaps such
regions with well developed deep regoliths provide optimal conditions for landslide
development, enhanced by the possibility of seismic initiation.
Drainage patterns are in large measure controlled by structure (e.g., Zemitz, 1931 ), and
even anomalous patterns have been explained in structural and tectonic terms, invoking
such mechanisms as superimposition and antecedence. In addition, deep erosion and the
exposure of structures that vary in their geometry vertically, such as has taken place in the
Flinders and Appalachian ranges, are encapsulated in the concept of valley impression and
stream persistence (see Meyerhoff and Olmstead, 1936; Oberlander, 1965; Twidale,
1972).
All of the instances cited are totally independent of climatic influences, past or present.
Moreover, until recently certain landforms which were regarded as climatic or zonal are
now seen as of structural origin. Thus inselbergs, especially those developed in granitic
rocks and of domical form, were - and still are by some - treated as of arid/semi-arid
provenance; and this despite the domical forms having been described from the coastal
rain forests of Brazil more than 150 years ago (Darwin, 1846). Similarly, towers in
limestone (towerkarst, Turmkarst) have been widely regarded as humid tropical forms with
particularly noteworthy developments in the Antilles, monsoonal northern Australia and
southeast Asia. Now, however, they are increasingly seen as basically structural forms
which owe their origin to the exploitation of strong vertical fractures. Brook and Ford
(1976; 1978) have described towers and associated labyrinth karst from the Canadian
northwest developed in postglacial times in a climate or climates at least as cold as that
which obtains at present. Thus was the climatic provenance of towerkarst brought into
question, and the significance of earlier reported towers from southern Poland and
Switzerland (e.g., Gilewska, 1964) re-examined. Meantime, Verstappen (1960) had
drawn attention to the fact that in Indonesia cupolas or domes of limestone stand on slight
rises, in comparatively dry sites, whereas towers occur on nearby alluvial plains. The
reason is that, as several workers have pointed out, weathering by moisture retained in
alluvium or other unconsolidated veneers lapping against the bases of the residuals has
caused undermining, collapse and steepening of sidewalls, and the conversion of cupolas
to towers (e.g., Lehmann, 1954; Verstappen, 1960; Jennings and Sweeting, 1963; Wilford
and Wall, 1965; Monroe, 1966; 1969; Miotke, 1973; Jennings, 1976; Twidale, 1987).

III The etch factor

Groundwaters are ubiquitous. They extend to depths of as much as ten kilometres, but
commonly to a depth of one kilometre, beneath the continents, and thus complete the
hydrospheric envelope. Water reacts with all the common rock-forming minerals, most of
which are soluble to a greater or lesser degree, and many of which are subject to hydration
or hydrolysis. Slaking is a physical breakdown as a result of water weakening the
electrostatic bonding of minerals. Groundwaters charged with chemicals are, additionally,
reactive. Moreover, groundwaters are the medium in which many biota, especially

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bacteria, circulate, causing further alteration and disintegration. Such reactions between
water and bedrock cause the development of a mantle of altered bedrock called the
regolith.The upper zone of the regolith, where organic inputs are pronounced, is the soil.
The base of the regolith, the junction between the regolith and the still intrinsically fresh
bedrock, is the weathering front (Mabbutt, 1961 a) .
Groundwaters exploit every weakness in the bedrock. Fractures are penetrated,
susceptible minerals and strata more rapidly weathered. Thus the shape of the weathering
front comes to reflect the character of the country rock and to develop a varied
morphology. The regolith is friable and lacking in cohesion. It is readily evacuated or
eroded to expose the weathering front. Even where, as has commonly happened both at
present and in the past, duricrusts have developed as a result of weathering, the indurated
horizon is frequently underlain by altered (commonly kaolinized) materials that are
susceptible to erosion. Thus it is not uncommon for the erstwhile weathering front to be
exposed, and the landforms, major and minor, that originated at the weathering front, but
are now exposed, are known as etch forms.
Groundwaters and hence regoliths underlie all or most of the continents. For this reason
etch forms - of similar morphology because they reflect the exploitation of structural
weaknesses by shallow groundwaters - are found not only over a wide range of climates but
also in various lithological contexts. The rate of development may vary for climatic or for
lithological reasons. For example, the rate of development is, almost certainly, more rapid
in the humid tropics because of higher ambient temperatures, higher rainfall and abundant
organic acids than in, say, cold lands; but the range of forms developed is similar
everywhere, given similar structural settings. Perhaps too much should not be made of
this, however, for most of the etch forms under discussion derive from earlier periods when
climates were different from those that prevail at present; many, though by no means all,
developed when torrid atmospheric climates prevailed over wide areas, and when therefore
regolithic climates would have been especially conducive to the rapid alteration of most
types of bedrock.
The morphology of etch forms varies in detail according to structure. For example,
whereas smooth concave flared slopes have evolved in massive granite, sandstone, rhyolite,
etc., the form is represented by rather rough notches in less massive materials. But the
virtual ubiquity of groundwaters implies that etch forms of various types are widespread.
They are azonal both in the climatic and in the lithological senses.
The ’etch’ (or ’etched’) concept can be traced back to 1791 when Hassenfratz published
a description of granitic boulders he had observed near Aumont (and probably near
Chazeirolettes - see Twidale, 1978; 1990a) in the southern Massif Central, some fully
exposed, others partly exposed from beneath the mantle of disintegrated granite in which
they were - and still are - embedded. Hassenfratz astutely realized that he had observed
stages in the exposure of rounded boulders that had originated beneath the land surface.
He noted that ‘... on apercoit tous les interm6diaires entre un bloc de granit dur contenu
et enchass6 dans la masse totale du granit friable et un bloc enti6rement d6gag6’
(Hassenfratz, 1791: 101).
Hassenfratz’s deductions embrace important principles. First, the granite boulders had
evolved in two stages, the first involving differential subsurface weathering, the second the
preferential stripping of the disintegrated bedrock, leaving the still cohesive masses of
intrinsically fresh rock as boulders. Many etch forms have two ages (Godard, 1966), and
this conclusion stands despite the recognition of etch forms that have evolved in four or
more stages (Twidale and Vidal Romani, 1994). Secondly, once in relief the boulders

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tended to persist because they were dry sites and because they shed water. Thus the
importance of water, of wet and dry sites, was highlighted (Barton, 1916), as were
reinforcement or positive feedback mechanisms.
Subsequently, MacCulloch (1814) demonstrated the significance of fractures as loci for
the penetration of meteoric waters and hence the course of weathering. Logan (1849;
1851) correctly deduced that vertical flutings he observed on the steep sides of granite
blocks on Palo Ubin, at the eastern end of the Strait of Johore, were likewise of subsurface
origin, for he noted that they extended beneath the soil cover which was of weathered
granite in situ.
Falconer (1911) was responsible for a major advance when he suggested that some
inselbergs, too, are of etch origin. Like the other early workers mentioned, he did not use
the term but the mechanism is clearly described: ’A plane surface of granite and gneiss
subjected to long-continued weathering at base level would be decomposed to unequal
depths, mainly according to the composition and texture of the various rocks. When
elevation and erosion ensued, the weathered crust would be removed, and an irregular
surface would be produced from which the more resistant rocks would project’ (Falconer,
1911: 246).
Falconer clearly envisaged that some masses of resistant rocks - though he did not
specify the nature of the resistance - projected into the base of the regolith, later to become
residual hills. A few years later, Jutson (1914) suggested that some of the extensive plains
eroded in granite, gneiss and greenstone in the southwest of Western Australia were
formed by the stripping of a (lateritic) regolith (see also Brock and Twidale, 1984). These
workers clearly envisaged that certain landforms they had observed, mainly in tropical
regions, had formed in two stages and were of etch origin, though they did not use that
terminology. That came with Wayland (1934) and Willis (1936).
The significance of the etch mechanism may be measured first by the extent of the
resultant forms and, secondly, by the number of otherwise puzzling features it is capable of
explaining (see, e.g., Twidale, 1990b). Recent years have seen a confirmation and
extension of the etch concept, with workers in many parts of the world identifying a wide
range of such landforms. Thus extensive plains of etch origin have been demonstrated in
several parts of the world, and notably in the southwest of Western Australia (Jutson,
1914; Mabbutt, 1961b), southern Africa (e.g., Partridge and Maud, 1987; Twidale, 1988)
and west Africa (Thomas and Thorp, 1983). The extraordinarily flat Nullarbor Plain -
that the trans-Australia railway runs in a perfectly straight line for almost 500 km is a
measure of its lack of relief - is eroded in Miocene limestone. About 65 m of section is
missing the southern part of the region (Lowry, 1970), and it has been suggested that
in
the surface is the result of etch planation beneath a (moist) soil cover (Twidale, 1990b).
Nascent bornhardts or domical inselbergs have been identified in artificial exposures in
western and southern Africa (Boye and Fritsch, 1973; Twidale, 1982), as have flared
slopes in granite in southern Australia, southern France and central Spain (Twidale, 1962;
1982; Centeno, 1989). Boulders of etch type are recognized from basalt and sandstone,
limestone and granite, as well as norite and other plutonic basic or intermediate rocks
(e.g., Hutton et al., 1977). Rock basins, gutters, grooves, flares and pitting have also been
suggested as being initiated beneath the regolith at the weathering front in various
lithological and climatic settings.
Etch forms are present even in glaciated lands; indeed some workers consider that many
erosional features preserved in glaciated regions are basically of etch origin. Boye (1950)
many years ago suggested that glaciers act as bulldozers and merely evacuate the pre-

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existing regolith, so that many bedrock forms characteristic of glaciated lands are
essentially exposed preglacial weathering fronts. This point has been developed with the
suggestion that many glaciated uplands in particular reflect glacial exploitation of pre-
existing landscapes formed by fracture-controlled weathering and river erosion (Twidale,
1990b).
The differential subsurface weathering that eventually gives rise to minor etch forms
appears to be faint or subdued. Thus when cleared of their thin cover of regolith, some of
the Kwaterski Rocks, on northwestern Eyre Peninsula, were already dimpled through the
development of numerous shallow saucer-shaped depressions that are the precursors of
rock basins of various types. Recent stripping of a thin regolith from some of the granite
platforms at the Cassia City of Rocks, Idaho, has revealed linear depressions or gutters that
are very faint but which, it is predicted, will develop into gutters or Rillen. Reinforcement
or positive feedback effects lead to the exploitation of any initial contrast in relief.

Moreover, differentiation takes place after exposure so that saucer-shaped depressions, for
example, become either hemispherical pits, flat-floored pans, cylindrical hollows or
armchair-shaped depressions according to the structure and slope of the sites on which
they occur. Rock doughnuts and rock levees are formed in relation to basins and gutters as
a result of differential weathering of wet (covered) and dry (exposed) zones (Twidale,

1988).
Karst workers long ago reached similar conclusions concerning limestone features,
rounded forms being referred to as covered or originating beneath a soil or regolithic cover,
angular features as uncovered or developed on fully exposed rock surfaces, and some being
half covered or part epigene and part subsurface in origin (e.g., Eckert, 1902; Lindner,
1930; Zwittkovits, 1966; Palmer, 1984).
Rock towers well illustrate the problems of climatic interpretation for they not only
evolve in a wide range of climatic environments but also in bedrocks additional to
limestone. For example, they are reported in conglomerate in the Pyrenees (Barrere,
1968), the Olgas complex of central Australia (Twidale and Bourne, 1978) and the well-
known Meteora residuals of central Greece and in the Pajakunkah region of Sumatra
(Verstappen, 1960). In sandstone, they occur for instance on the Roraima Plateau of
Venezuela (Demangeot, 1985; Schubert and Huber, 1990), in central Germany (e.g., the
Extemsteine Horn, near Bad Meinberg), in the English Pennines (e.g., Linton, 1964), in
the so-called Lost City of Arnhemland, in northern Australia (Jennings, 1979), in Hunan
Province of south-central China (Yuan Dioxian, personal communication, 10 August
1992) and in the Vila Velha region of southeastern Brazil. Miniature towers in rhyolitic tuff
are recorded from New Mexico (Mueller and Twidale, 1988) and in granitic rocks,

represented by castle koppies in Zimbabwe, and by the ’tors’ of many cold lands, such as
Bohemia (e.g., Demek, 1964), Dartmoor (e.g., Linton, 1955), Newfoundland (e.g.,
Schrepfer, 1933) and the Pyrenees (e.g., Twidale, 1982).
Some towers appear to have evolved through the exploitation of strong, widely spaced
vertical fractures (see, e.g., Barr~re, 1968; Brook and Ford, 1976; 1978). In other areas
there are clear indications that this exploitation has taken place beneath the land surface.
In particular, flared sidewalls are developed in many areas. Moreover, basal weathering,
undermining and collapse of bounding slopes sufficient to convert domes to towers, is
widely in evidence. In karst terrains, slots and caves are commonplace and, associated as
they are with residuals on which convex crests manifestly give way downslope to steepened
cliffs due to undermining and collapse, the nature of the mechanism responsible for
converting domes to towers is obvious. In other lithological environments, such as

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sandstone, flared slopes or notches argue similar scarp-foot weathering and steepening of
bounding slopes but obviously unstable facets are not commonplace in such a massive and
cohesive rock as granite. Additionally, the situation is frequently complicated by the
presence of sheet structure (granite), foliation (gneiss) and bedding and jointing (sand-
stone and conglomerate); nevertheless, the same mechanism appears feasible and it
operates over a range of climatic conditions and in several lithological environments.
Most of the early recognized etch forms and effects derive from the tropics. The
piedmont angle, the abrupt transition from hill to plain, is particularly prominent in arid
and semi-arid midlatitude lands, standing in marked contrast to the gradual merging of
plain and upland typical of temperate regions (see, e.g., Hills, 1955). The piedmont angle
has been attributed to scarp-foot weathering (Twidale, 1967), but the mechanism is not
restricted to arid lands - witness the distribution of flared slopes in a wide range of climatic
contexts - though it is particularly effective there. Where suitable structural conditions
obtain, with caprocks in regions of flat lying sedimentary sequences or marked lithological
contrasts in folded sedimentary terrains, abrupt transitions between hill and plain are well
developed. The chalk scarplands of southern England and northern France provide
excellent examples. But uplands rising sharply from plains or valley floors are the norm in
arid and semi-arid lands. Paradoxically perhaps, water being scarce, it is the more
important as an agent of alteration in aridity than in humid climates.
All this is not to suggest that there are no morphological variations within the humid
lands that are reasonably to be attributed to climatic variations. For example, nubbins
appear to be confined to the humid tropics or to areas that have experienced such
conditions during the period of their formation. Thus nubbins are found, on the one hand,
in northern Australia and Hong Kong and, on the other, in the southwestern USA
(Oberlander, 1972). This distribution may reflect the effectiveness of moist regoliths in
breaking down sheet structure for those of the southwestern USA evidently developed in
warm humid conditions during the Tertiary (Oberlander, 1972). Also, though widely

distributed, some forms may be more prevalent in some areas than others: thus covered
pediments occur outside the tropics but are undoubtedly best and most widely developed
in the arid and semi-arid regions. Again, flared slopes, though reported from a wide range
of climatic and lithological environments, are undoubtedly best and most commonly
developed in granite in southern Australia, a distribution, however, that reflects the
essential and comparative stability of the region as much as any particular climate.

IV Climatically generated processes and mechanisms common to several climatic

regions
Many processes and mechanisms are active over a wide range of climatic regions. Their
precise character and genesis may differ from region to region but the end results are the
same. Moreover, many enduring landforms are the result of storm or catastrophic events,
events which find no expression in the climatic averages that are the basis of climatic
classification, yet which leave an enduring imprint on the landscape.
Rivers are a major force shaping the landscape in all but the glacial regions, and even
there they occasionally erode channels either in, within or, more significantly from the
point of view of eventual bedrock morphology, beneath the glacier ice. Most of the major
erosional forms of deserts are shaped by rivers generated by the occasional rains that are a
feature of every desert (e.g., Peel, 1941).

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There is reason to believe that the quantitative data concerning channel shape and
geometry derived by Leopold and his colleagues (e.g., Leopold et al., 1964) do not hold in
detail for, say, monsoonal rivers, but the assemblage of forms associated with fluvial
erosion and deposition is found in most climatic regions. There is a range of forms rather
than a single set, but that spectrum is found over a wide range of climatically based
regions. Channels and flood plains, terraces and deltas, meandering and braided patterns -
none is restricted to a single climatically defined region. Some are the result of a common

mechanism, others are formed in varied circumstances.

Braided river channels are a good example. The braided pattern reflects three factors.
First, low water: all rivers would appear braided if the flow were reduced such that the
shoal and pool bedforms were exposed. Secondly, they reflect an inefficient but effective
response to high discharge conditions, to floods. But the reason for high discharge may be
episodic rains (as in deserts), seasonal rains (as in monsoon lands) or spring melt (as in
periglacial lands). Thirdly, they reflect steeper gradients, which may be due to structure or
tectonics (e.g., Twidale, 1966). However, the influence of gradient may be compensated
or cancelled by channel characteristics, as for instance where steep mountain streams

emerge on to piedmont plains, leave the confines of gorges and divide into a number of
channels; total cross-section is increased and stream efficiency decreased; and the coarse
load is deposited, causing further hydraulic inefficiency and further deposition and
subdivison of channels.
Similarly, both alluvial fans and covered pediments or glacis, though widely regarded as
desert and semi-desert forms, are in fact widely distributed. Alluvial fans are well
developed in such regions as the Canadian Rockies as well as desert lands, for example.
Rock pediments are etch forms and are correspondingly widely distributed. Covered
pediments are found in Colorado, Utah and Alaska, in Korea and Japan, as well as arid
and semi-arid regions. The reason is that the fluvial conditions necessary for their
development transgress the boundaries of conventionally defined climatic regions. Pedi-
ments, for example, reflect flood conditions active in a piedmont zone, and such high
variations in stream discharge can be induced not only by the episodic rains of deserts but
also by monsoon rains, and by spring snow melt (Twidale, 1981). Such pediments are not
restricted to low, midlatitude semi-arid lands, as required by Budel’s climatomorphoge-
netic system, though they are well developed in such regions. Like scarp-foot weathering,
many fluvial mechanisms transgress climatic boundaries and are convergent in the sense
that they are generated in various ways but with similar end products.
Certain other landforms are developed in contrasted climatic settings though they are
the result of similar mechanisms. Thus gilgai, or patterned ground caused by the churning
of soils rich in hydrophilic clays, are found in regions with rainfall as low as 250 mm (e.g.,
in the Coober Pedy area of the interior of South Australia) and as high as 1100 mm (on the
Darling Downs of southeastern Queensland): all that is required is wet and dry periods,
whether seasonally or episodically distributed, and a suitable thickness of hydrophilic clay
(e.g., Springer, 1958; Hallsworth, 1968; Hubble et al., 1983).
Lunettes, much favoured by some as (semi-arid) climatic indicators (e.g., Bowler,
1973), are known from a considerable range of climatic regions. In Australia, for example,
they are reported from monsoonal north Queensland and humid temperate Tasmania, as
well as from the Mediterranean and savannah lands of southern Australia. Large, actively
developing lunettes as well as the dissected remnants of older forms occur on the northern
margin of Lake Eyre in a hyperarid region (e.g., Dulhunty, 1983) and indeed at the
margins or many other desert playas where they play a crucial role in dune initiation

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(Wopfner and Twidale, 1988). Lunettes develop spasmodically, with constructional

phases during dry periods or seasons, interspersed with standstill or dissection during wet
periods.
Tafoni are found in massive rocks, typically granite but also sandstone, in arid and semi-
arid lands, and also in seasonally dry coastal areas, but in a wide range of precipitation
averages and in cold as well as hot regions - in Antarctica as well as central Australia; the
common feature is conditions suitable for salt crystallization (e.g., Klaer, 1956; Calkin and

Cailleux, 1962; Martini, 1978; Bradley et al., 1978).

Similar forms have been produced by different processes. For example, castle koppies
appear to have evolved where just the crests of domical masses have been exposed as
platforms, and the covered areas have been weathered in the zone just beneath the land
surface (Twidale, 1982). Such castellated forms are found in cold lands where the
weathering may be due to freeze-thaw in the near surface zone, and in relation to old
planation surfaces in southern Africa. Here the subsurface weathering may have been
effected by soil and regolithic moisture over a lengthy period. The exposure of the buried
flanks of granitic masses steepened by subsurface weathering (probably frost action in high
latitudes and altitudes, chemical reactions between water and bedrock in low latitudes) is
achieved in part at least by solifluxion in cold climates, but by streams in tropical lands.
Natural caves and arches are the result of wave action on coasts, river action in valleys, but
most commonly by subsurface moisture attack (Twidale and Centeno, 1993). Some
bornhardts are the result of upfaulting, others to the differential weathering and erosion of
contrasted rock types, but most are two-stage etch forms that were initiated beneath the
land surface at the weathering front (Twidale, 1982). Different processes acting on
bedrock possibly of contrasted origins (plutonic, sedimentary, metamorphic) but with
similar physical properties (and particularly similar fracture patterns) produce similar
landforms: convergence or equifinality is commonplace in geomorphology.
Finally, catstrophic events which leave their imprint on the landscape occur independ-
ently of climate. Some catastrophically induced landforms are extraterrestrial in origin, for
meteorite impacts (or low-level asteroid explosions) either of recent age or of some
antiquity are found the world over (see, e.g., Gostin et al., 1986; Williams, 1986; Milton
and Sutter, 1987). Others are tectonic, such as the earthquake-related features and the
volcanic eruptions referred to earlier. Tsunamis generated by submarine eruptions and
earthquakes have been cited to account for otherwise puzzling coastal forms (e.g., Young
and Bryant, 1992).
Extreme climatic events that are not accounted for in the climatic means that are the
bases of climatic classifications also have an enduring impact on the landscape. The most
dramatic, but possibly unique, example is provided by the channelled scablands located in
the northwestern USA (see, e.g., Bretz et al., 1956). The remarkable channels and other
fluvial forms eroded in a basaltic high plain are due to brief but enormous floods following
the breaking of a glacier dam that impounded Lake Missoula during the Late Pleistocene
(Baker, 1973). But flood plain deposits may not all be related to gradual, progressive
fluvial accretion, for in some areas they appear to consist not of single sequences as a result
of either vertical accretion or lateral corrasion and related deposition of point bars but
rather to periods of accumulation separated by floods and related erosion that leave only
remnants of earlier deposits among the later (e.g., Nanson, 1986). Disequilibrium
conditions because of storm or high-energy events are far more commonly manifested in
the landscape than has been supposed. Human impacts, and especially the clearance of
vegetation by various means and for various reasons, fall into this category, for they

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produce disequilibrium (e.g., Tricart and Cailleux, 1972) and epicycles of erosion and
deposition. Gullying, for example, is similar whether it be located in southern Africa,
western Europe or the southwestern USA. Its perceived significance may vary greatly from
region to region, but causations are basically similar. However, though gullying and other
forms of soil erosion are both widespread and obvious, both appear to be restricted in
space and time. Thus Vogt ( 1953) has noted a seventeenth-century phase of soil erosion in
western Europe that was overcome by improved farm husbandry, and observations in
many parts of the world suggest, for instance, that gullying develops rapidly in uncon-
solidated rocks but makes little impression on lithified but weak materials such as shale. In
the geological context, though not the human, even catastrophic soil erosion is ephemeral
and unimportant.

V Conclusion

Climatic impacts are not denied but they have been overestimated. Desert assemblages,
glaciated lands and nivally shaped land surfaces are readily recognizable. The distribution
of some specific landforms, such as nubbins, appears to be zonal, and features such as
tafoni that are the result of salt crystallization are developed in arid and semi-arid terrestrial
and coastal areas. In addition, rivers have produced a range of forms that is not confined to
any one climatic region. The proposed humid tropical or selvas morphogenetic region
characterized by abundant mass movements is difficult to define, for landslides and
earthflows may be triggered by seismic events and river action produces a similar range of
forms the world over. Etch forms are widely represented in the landscape, and they too are
similar though they may have evolved at different rates in contrasted climatic zones.
Structural effects are ubiquitous not only finding direct expression in the landscape but
also in influencing the type and rate of weathering and erosion.
The major contrast between various climatic regions is not so much in the type or
assemblage of forms developed but rather in the rate at which they evolve, though this factor
may well be subdued by the realities of climatic change and the warm, humid climates
prevalent over wide areas through much of the Cainozoic, and by the fact that many forms are
of considerable antiquity.
Climatic factors are important in inducing the operation of processes that find clear
expression in landform assemblages the world over, but together they constitute but one of
several factors that determine the shape of the Earth’s surface at regional and local scales.
Climate is certainly not an over-riding consideration in the interpretation of landscape.
Sweeting’s statement concerning karst is applicable to landscapes as a whole: ‘... we know that
though climatic differences effect karst processes, the correlations between climate and
landform are not as simple as we once supposed’ (Sweeting, 1976: 1).

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