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A major area of interest in French geomorphology during the last quarter of a cen tury has been to understand denudation chronologies and the legacies of environ mental change in shield regions. The mechanisms and consequences on landform patterns of differential erosion in plutonic,metamorphic and related cover rocks have been approached from the double angle of structural landforms in the landscape and petrographical,mineralogical and geochemical analysis in the laboratory. The detailed study of layered igneous intrusions has been particularly helpful in making progress more generally in the understanding of crystalline landform configurations of base ment terrains. The Laboratoire de Geographic Physique CNRS-URAiai. nowreformed as twin research units (Paris: CNRS-UMR8591,and Clermont-Ferrand: CNRS-UPRES A6042), and itsprecursor research group at the Sorbonne under the guidance of Pierre Birot,constituted the spawning ground for French research on the geomorphology of basement terrains. Alain Godard masterminded much of the research synthesised in this volume,which isbased on apreviously publishededition in French. YannickLageat and Jean-Jacques Lagasquie have not only upheld the spirit of this school of geomor phology but also introduced novel concepts and methods to the investigation of crys talline terrains. They have also maintained geomorphological research abreast of con temporarydevelopments in the geosciences. YanniGunnell translated the original text into English, adapted the figures and introduced a measure of editing, updating and explicating in order to make the volume more accessible - not only to a non franco phone audience, but to an audience unfamiliarwith the intellectual undercurrents and 30 years.
List of contents
I The Fabric of Basement Terrains and its Controls on the Development of Landforms.- 1 Planation Surfaces in Basement Terrains.- 2 Morphostructural Units, Multi-Storeyed Scenery and the Origin of Escarpments in Basement Terrains.- 3 Structural Landforms in Basement Terrains.- II The Weathering of Igneous and Metamorphic Rocks: Processes and Products.- 4 Rock Resistance and its Influence on Landforms in Basement Terrains.- 5 Chemical Weathering, Regolith and Climate in Metamorphic and Igneous Terrains.- 6 Cryogenic Processes and Ice-Related Restructuring of the Regolith in Metamorphic and Igneous Terrains.- III Zonal Patterns of Landscape Development in Basement Terrains.- 7 Landscape Development in Tropical Shield Environments.- 8 Landscape Development in Arctic, Sub-Arctic and Circum-Arctic Shield Environments.- 9 Landscape Development in Metamorphic and Igneous Terrains of the Mid-Latitudes (with Special Reference to Western Europe).- 10 Structural Predesign and Scaling Factors in Geomorphology: Lessons from the Study of Basement Terrains.- References.
