Cycle of erosion
The geographic cycle or cycle of erosion is an idealized model that explains the development of relief in landscapes. The model starts with the erosion that follows uplift of land above a base level and ends – if conditions allow – in the formation of a peneplain. Landscapes that show evidence of more than one cycle of erosion are termed "polycyclical". The cycle of erosion and some of its associated concepts have, despite popularity, been a subject of much criticism.
The model
, the originator of the model, divided it into stages whose transition is gradual. The model begins with an uplifted or to-be-uplifted landscape. Then Davis defined a youthful stage where river incision is the dominant process shaping the landscape. During the youthful stage height differences between uplands and valley bottoms increase rapidly. The youthful stage is followed by a mature stage where height differences between valley bottoms and uplands are at their greatest. Beginning in the mature stage slope decline becomes a more important phenomenon, and uplands lose height more rapidly than rivers incise, effectively diminishing relief. In the very latest stage erosion has acted so long that the landscape – despite original height – is reduced into a rolling lowland. This landscape of low relief is called a peneplain and may contain residual heights standing out from the general level. The peneplain can be uplifted, starting a second erosion cycle.Davis acknowledged that a full cycle was a special case and that initial uplift was not necessarily rapid nor followed by a prolonged period of quiescence. However, as Walther Penck pointed out, Davis and his followers usually –if not almost always– employed a rapid uplift and quiescence approach to explain landscapes. This means that the model, as understood by most, assumes rapid and episodic tectonic uplift.
Another characteristic of the model is that slopes evolve by decline, meaning that initially steep slopes are worn out by erosion forming successively gentler slopes. Weaknesses of the model are that it is mostly theoretical and deductive in nature; further it does not take into account the complexity of tectonic movements or climate change. The nature of surface processes is also poorly represented by the model. The model in its original form is intended to explain relief development in temperate landscapes where erosion by running water is assumed to be of prime importance. Nevertheless, the cycle of erosion has been extended, with modifications, into arid, glacial, coastal, karst and periglacial areas.
| Environment | Proposed by | Details |
| Arid | Davis, 1905 | At the beginning of the cycle of erosion in arid climate there are numerous small basins to where material is washed during the scarce rainfall events. In the next stage valleys are developed and highlands dissected by these. Gentle slopes and basins accumulated material derived from the highlands. In the mature stage drainage basins coalesce. At the end a stage is reached where the terrain has lost much of its relief and deflation hollows interfere with the drainage systems, breaking it up into local systems. During all stages sand and dust might be exported by wind to other landscapes. |
| Coastal | Johnson, 1919 | Alternate models are proposed for shore profiles: one for shore profiles of emergence and another for shore profiles of submergence. A complementary model can be applied to shore lines where different parts might have undergone submergence and emergence. |
| Glacial | Davis, 1900 | The glacial cycle of erosion deals with mountainous regions and lacks an old stage since Davis argues that nothing more developed than mature glacial landscapes exists at present. A glacial cycle of erosion begins with a pre-glacial landscape. Over time valley glaciers erode the underlying rock at different rates, creating valleys and glaciers that are more entrenched than others. As time passes the less-entrenched glaciers reach the same levels of entrenchment as the more entrenched ones, since the deeper a glacier erodes, its erosive power diminishes. In a mature stage, valleys form smooth-sided troughs. |
| Karst | Cvijić, 1918 | The cycle of erosion in karst regions has three phases. At first the upper parts of fractures are dissolved, enlarged and filled with water. Normal fluvial valleys develop on the surface, small poljes might exist. Subsequently, re-routing of water by the growth of a karst system disorganizes the fluvial drainage pattern, with valley bottoms developing large dolines and uvalas. Ridges between uvalas gradually disappear as these landforms coalesce. If the bedrock is underlain by insoluble rock, normal fluvial valleys will slowly re-appear once the underground river systems reach the insoluble rock. In the end soluble rocks appear only as isolated hills. Contrary to Davis' original cycle of erosion the karst one does not end in the formation of a peneplain. |
| Periglacial | Peltier, 1950 | The periglacial cycle of erosion begins with a non-periglaciated landscape. Once-periglaciated mass wasting of regolith exposes bedrock in the upper slopes. These outcrops are then subject to frost weathering that makes slopes retreat forming extensive blockfields at the base of the bedrock areas. At a later stage solifluction wears down summits and fills in topographic lows. |
History
Background
There had been some ideas on cyclical erosion in the Graeco-Roman world and then in the Islamic world and Europe during the Middle Ages. However the immediate influences of William Morris Davis, the creator of the cycle of erosion model, were 19th century American explorers. The end of the American Civil War led to a resumption of the exploration of the western United States. Three explorers, John Wesley Powell, Clarence Edward Dutton and Grove Karl Gilbert, wrote about the geomorphology and geology in the landscapes they encountered. It was from these works that Davis borrowed many concepts used to construct the model.Connection to scientific racism in cultural evolution
It has been argued that Davis was also influenced by ideas from the field of biology, especially the Neo-Lamarckian thought that was current in the late 19th-century United States. It is thought that Davis received some of this Neo-Lamarckian influence from his tutor, Nathaniel Shaler. Other biological theories that may have shaped the cycle of erosion are those of orthogenesis and recapitulation both of which are linked to Neo-Lamarckianism. Darwin's evolution theory was a lesser influence relative to Neo-Lamarckism. The impact of these ideas can be hinted in the models' employment of the concept of "evolution" rather than "change", implying a predictable direction of landscape and landform change.Davis wrote geography textbooks that described the “races of mankind”, noting that the European as the most advanced, and connects topography and climate to superiority/inferiority of human race which evolved on that continent. On North America, Davis wrote that “inhabitants of this great land were savages who did not know how to develop its riches”. This textbook chapter exemplifies how Davis promulgated theories of scientific racism, and was likely influenced by mentor and colleague Nathaniel Shaler, who published similar views on the subject. Davis borrowed from Darwinian biological concepts and applied these to physical landscapes and climates in a type of Social Darwinistic thought termed "environmental determinism".
Early acclaim and criticism
Davis conceived the cycle of erosion model in the 1880s. More fully developed by 1900 it received wide acclaim, but was never universally accepted. The initial enthusiasm and strength of the cycle of erosion model has been attributed to various causes. First, the model provided a framework to study areas and epochs in Earth history where erosion is the dominant process. Second, the model fitted well into the grand evolutionary thought that had emerged in the 19th century with Darwin's evolution theory. Lastly, some popularity can be attributed to Davis's lucid writing style. The model achieved its greatest popularity in the 1900–39 period when numerous studies on denudation chronology based on the model were published. In these studies usually two to five erosion cycles were identified. The approach of doing denudation chronology with the cycle of erosion model lost popularity from the 1930s onward. Arguably this was so because the approach did not provide any unforeseeable insights. An increasing number of geomorphologists had begun to study processes happening in the present and not in the past as done with the cycle of erosion model. These process geomorphologists soon realized some of their observations were at odds with Davis's model. Other geomorphologists turned away from the cycle of erosion to work instead on climatic or tectonic geomorphology.The model spread fast. In 1901 Hans Reusch was using it to explain the undulating plateau of southern Norway. Very much influenced by Davis Walter Wråk moved to study the relief of the northern Scandinavian Mountains, describing among other things the Borsu surface.
The first study of China's topography using the model was published in 1907 by B. Willis and co-workers.
While the model was at first widely accepted among Anglo-Saxon scholars, in Continental Europe it met some resistance with German scholars Albrecht and Walther Penck, Siegfried Passarge and Alfred Hettner standing out as early opponents to the model. Despite Davis's efforts, which included translating his work into German, being a visiting professor at Berlin and touring much of Europe, the cycle of erosion never did take firm root in Germany. Walther Penck came to originate an alternative model with its own set of tenets. Walther's ideas were published posthumously in 1924 by his father, Albrecht. In Walther's model, relief is shaped as a function of the denudation/uplift rate. Davis, a friend of Walther's father, was critical of Walther's new model. Davis's review of Walther Penck's second publication on the subject left a distorted view of Penck's ideas among later workers. This is because Davis misunderstood and mis-translated parts of the paper, therefore Davis is not an adequate critic of Penck's work.
An alternative cycle theory was later proposed by Lester Charles King in the 1960s.
Intensified criticism (1960s)
While King's ideas were an attempt at refuting Davis's cycle of erosion they were themselves of cyclical nature and contributed to ushering in a wave of criticism in 1960s against both his and Davis's models. This criticism has been called "Davis bashing" by Cliff Ollier and constitutes to Ollier the ridicule of cyclical theories in geomorphology without any alternative model being proposed. Since Davis' ideas were being discredited other areas of research, like that of climatic geomorphology, were attacked by their perceived association to it.The notions of time, uplift, slope and drainage density evolution in the erosion cycle have been criticized. Further the validity of some whole concepts associated with the cycle of erosion have been questioned including stream grade, base level and most of all that of peneplains.
Writing in 1971 geomorphologist Ronald Flemal summarized the situation as follows: