Morphological Analysis

Morphological Analysis 

a method for determining the nature and history of the development of recent movements of the earth’s crust; it is based on a study of exogenic processes and the presently existing geomorphological structure. The method was proposed by W. Penck in 1924 and is based on the idea that relief results from the continuous interaction of endogenic and exogenic forces (W. M. Davis considered manifestations of endogenic forces to be occasional, sporadic). Penck attached great importance to the analysis of the profile of slopes, whose shapes were considered a reflection of the relations between erosion-denudation processes and tectonic uplifts. When exogenic processes counterbalance endogenic ones, a straight profile is formed; if deep erosion, compensating for tectonic uplift, is more intensive than surface erosion on the slopes, then the latter acquire a convex shape. If denudation is more rapid than deep erosion, a concave profile develops*, which indicates the end of the uplifts. Some of Penck’s hypotheses have been subjected to well-founded criticism, but his basic ideas have greatly influenced the development of geomorphology.