In the late 1800s, U.S. geographer and Harvard professor William Morris Davis created his “cycle of erosion” concept, holding that attributes like valleys and plains were formed by physical pressures such as water. His concept was groundbreaking but not completely accurate. Still, the concept stimulated the contemporary scientific research of geomorphology, or the research study of Planet’s landforms.
In some cases called “the father of American geography,” Davis highly believed that geography must be shown not only at the college level but in grade school and also senior high school also. He also instructed a lot of the essential geographers who followed him, consisting of Ellsworth Huntington, that studied the connection between environment as well as world.
At a time when individuals mainly believed that landforms like hills and valleys had been created by the scriptural terrific flooding, Davis was just one of a few individuals who believed other forces went to job. So he concentrated his research on how rivers developed landforms. He called his theory the “geographical cycle,” as well as it basically went like this:
* First, hills are “boosted,” or pressed upwards by a geological force.
* After that, in a phase he called “young people,” water flowing through the landscape takes sharp, high valleys.
* In the “maturation” stage, the valleys end up being bigger as well as smoother as time passes.
* The hills slowly develop into hills and also flatten out in the “old age” phase, at some point leaving only a level surface, or “peneplain,” which Davis called the “base degree.”
* Last but not least, “renewal” takes place: An additional uplift of hills occurs, and also the cycle starts again.
Despite its defects– as an example, erosion also happens during the “uplift” duration when hills are developing– Davis’s theory is still valuable as a standard description for how streams create.
