geomorphology

Geomorphology is the scientific study of landscapes and the processes that shape them.

The term breaks down into:
Geo - earth
morph - shape
ology - study

One focus is the relationship between landforms and the processes currently acting on them; another is to consider past events that may have helped shape the landscape. Ultimately, both are essential.

The study of how the surface of the Earth is shaped by natural processes:

• geological processes such as
• tectonic uplift
• subsidence
• subduction
• faulting
• folding
• isostasy
• volcanism
• weathering processes, such as
• erosion from
• rainfall
• wind and blowing sand
• deflation
• flowing water
• wave action
• ice, especially glaciers
• contraction and expansion from changes in heat or pressure
• exfoliation
• chemical processes, especially biological ones,
• sea level change
• the transportation and deposition the debris from these processes, that is, "sediment".

These processes give rise to various types of structures on the Earth's surface, called landforms (follow the link).

Geomorphology is the interface between Geography and Geology.  Where geologists are interested in the rocks underlying various landforms, the minerals those rocks contiain, and how geomorphological proceses contribute to the formation of new rocks, geographers are interested in landforms' spatial relationships to one another, and how they affect climate, soils, vegetation, the natural environment, and ultimately human settlement, economics, culture, politics, and history.