Encyclopedia of geomorphology. Volume 1&2 / Геоморфологическая энциклопедия. Часть 1 и 2

The term ‘geomorphology’ arose in the Geological Survey in the USA in the 1880s and was possibly coined by those two great pioneers, J.W. Powell and WJ McGee. In 1891 McGee wrote: ‘The phenomena of degradation form the subject of geomorphology, the novel branch of geology.’ He plainly regarded geomorphology as being that part of geology which enabled the practitioner to reconstruct Earth history by looking at the evidence for past erosion, writing:
A new period in the development of geologic science has dawned within a decade. In at least two American centres and one abroad it has come to be recognised that the later history of world growth may be read from the configuration of the hills as well as from the sediments and fossils of ancient oceans . . . The field of science is thereby broadened by the addition of a coordinate province – by the birth of a new geology which is destined to rank with the old. This is geomorphic geology, or geomorphology. <...>