GEOS 1004 Lecture Notes - Lecture 28: Coastal Erosion, Mass Wasting, Complex System
8 Mar 2018
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Document Summary
Landscapes are controlled by weathering, erosion, and deposition (chemical, physical, and biological processes). The evolution of the surface behaves as a complex system. Complex systems: numerous interacting components (feedback loops), intricate and sensitive to change (non-linear behavior, stochastic events), hard to understand (butterfly effect; need synoptic approach). The character of some landscapes are mainly shaped by physical or chemical weathering. Most of the surface of continents are primarily shaped by erosion. Erosion is complex: depends on process (rivers, glaciers, wind), topography (how steep), climate (temperature, precipitation), rock properties, weathering (physical, chemical, biological), local factors (e. g. infiltration; biology). Glacial erosion: the most powerful, but limited to high latitudes or high elevations. 4 december, 2017 (cid:498)mass wasting(cid:499): collapse of rock by gravity; common on mountainous slopes. Part ii: living with the landscape (and nature) Characteristic trait of surface processes are that they are not uniform with time.
