My favorite class last semester was Bill Dietrich's Geomorphology. Geomorphology is the study of earth (geo-) forms (morphology). Geomorphologists are, in essence, trying to answer the question: why are landforms shaped the way they are? And what makes them change?
Why are hills generally convex? Why are some beaches rocky and some sandy? Why do some rivers meander, and others are ramrod straight? What forces make landscapes change over time?
Why are hills generally convex? Why are some beaches rocky and some sandy? Why do some rivers meander, and others are ramrod straight? What forces make landscapes change over time?
Some landform-shaping processes are quick, and some are slow. I did research on the process by which the Russian River, in Sonoma County, breaks through a berm of sand that separates the river from the ocean ("breaching"). The berm takes weeks or months to get built by waves; high river flows cause the breach to happen over a few minutes, we think. Months and minutes are both tractable timescales of lived human experience, despite orders of magnitude difference. What about years, or decades?
Morphodynamics on geologic timescales (e.g. tectonics) require data sets not based on observation but rather record interpretation. This has historically been the case, too, for decadal-scale processes and change. But satellite imaging now has around four decades of history under its belt, allowing us to now see, watch, and replay landscape change that may be too slow to personally photograph but too rapid to meaningfully interpret via proxy variables. This is why Google Earth Engine's Timelapse is so cool, and good multi-decade data sets by passionate people can make major contributions to understanding. This is a timescale over which rivers avulse, beaches erode, landslides complicate property rights, and the weirding starts takes place.
Geomorphology (and, more broadly, Geology) is a young discipline within the Western canon of sciences. Given the outlook of the Anthropocene, the field little backing for much work to be done in anticipating how landforms will respond to increasingly tangled senses of "human-made" and "natural" environmental effects, whether local or global. But physical shifts alone are of course not the main source of worry.
Decadal dynamics also happen to work on a timescale with large effects on lived experiences for humans. Decades are the timelines we think of when making homes, families, and bodies of meaningful work. Typically, landform elements have served as static reference points in cultural production—elevation markers, mythic hilltops, and property boundaries alike.
The earth is dynamic. Climate change will likely increase the rate of surface morphology change, bringing it closer to this timescale of lived experience. Land cannot, in the 21st century, be thought of as a fixed good. Our spatial reference points will shift anew and old memories will press a newfound urgency on to the landscapes we have.
Eroding into the sunset,
Lukas
(p.s. One of the most amazing examples of this, to me, is the prevalence of rivers serving as international borders, despite a river being by definition a body of water that moves through space... and rivers love to move around)