geomorfologie

Geomorfologie, also known as geomorphology, is the scientific study of the Earth's surface forms and the processes that shape them. It seeks to understand how climate, tectonics, soils, biology, and human activity interact to create, modify, and erase landscapes across different timescales. The field combines observations in the field with laboratory analyses and numerical modelling to reconstruct past landscapes and predict future changes.

Landforms arise from combinations of weathering, erosion, transport, and deposition acting over varying timescales. Landforms include mountains, plateaus, valleys, dunes, coastlines, river channels, deltas, caves, sinkholes, and other features produced by volcanism or karst processes.

Key processes include weathering (mechanical, chemical, and biological), erosion by water, ice, and wind, the transport of sediments, deposition, tectonic uplift and subsidence, mass wasting, and volcanism. The discipline studies processes at scales from micromorphology in soils to continental and planetary surfaces, including glacial, fluvial, coastal, desert, and periglacial environments. Planetary geomorphology extends methods and concepts to the surfaces of Mars, the Moon, and other bodies.

Methods include field mapping, stratigraphy, sedimentology, dating techniques, geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing, and digital elevation models such as LiDAR. Subfields include fluvial, glacial, coastal, karst, desert, and tropical geomorphology, among others. Geomorphology informs natural hazard assessment, land-use planning, watershed management, conservation, and landscape restoration, and it provides insight into past climate and environmental change.