15 Derivation and Innovation in Improper Geology, aka

Geomorphologists have contributed to geological understanding in several ways. First, the form of the land surface provides an introduction to various geological phenomena and the first indications of subsurface structure and events, past, present and future. Second, knowledge of contemporary processes, to which geomorphologists have contributed, facilitates the interpretation of palaeosurfaces, of past deposits and of past events. Third, the land surface is part of the record of earth history, which is the core and focus of geology. Over considerable areas of each of the continents morphology provides the only clues to Phanerozoic events. Fourth, geomorphological concepts are of considerable practical or applied significance, for example in the search for minerals, in engineering geology and in planning generally. Yet geomorphology has lost and continues to lose status in the geological profession, both academic and non-academic (governmental, industrial). Some geologists regard geomorphology as not proper or not real geology. The possible reasons for this are broached and responses discussed. The feasibility of geomorphology severing its ties wit