Inselbergs are isolated rock outcrops that stand out abruptly from surrounding plains. Despite the widespread occurrence of granite inselbergs throughout all climatic and vegetational zones, their remarkably rich plant life was largely neglected in the recent literature. This richly and partly in color illustrated volume provides a detailed survey of all major abiotic and biotic features characteristic for inselbergs. The extreme environmental conditions on inselbergs are described in depth as well as specific adaptive traits of rock outcrop plants including their morphological, anatomical and physiological responses. The diversity and structure of inselberg plant communities are examined on a global scale with detailed regional accounts for different tropical and temperate zones.

This book is a ground breaking and highly illustrated study challenging existing plate tectonics theory. It describes mountains from all over the world, analysing their rocks, structure and age to ascertain what led to their formation.

Proceedings of the XIVth AETFAT Congress, 22-27 August 1994, Wageningen, the Netherlands

During the past few decades climatic geomorphology has been substantially enlarged in knowledge, thanks to numerous detailed investigations, the application of a large number of techniques, and the acquisition of abundant absolute dates. The challenge of predicting the effects of the prophesied future global warming on morphogenetic processes and landforms has encouraged geomorphologists to study the Late Pleistocene and Holocene climatic changes from the geomorphological and geological record. The advances achieved in the field of climatic geomorphology during the past years are reflected by the publication of several specific monographs about the different morphoclimatic zones. The aim of this book is to provide an up-to-date general view of this branch of geomorphology. It includes a chapter on applied geomorphology for each morphoclimatic zone providing an approximation of the main environmental problems. Geoscientists, geomorphologists

This book provides a detailed coverage of the landforms of Planet Earth and the processes that shaped them. The study of these morphologies, some of which formed during past geological periods under environmental conditions very different from those of today, makes it possible to reconstruct the evolution of relief and to infer environmental changes that have involved geological media, the climate, or human activity. A major advance of Geomorphology in recent decades is the development of techniques that make it possible to quantify morphogenetic processes and rates at which forms change under different environmental conditions. The development of Geochronology, or absolute dating methods, is helping us correct the limitations of relative dating that have prevailed in Geomorphology for many years. The ability to assign numerical ages to both landforms and deposits opens up multiple possibilities for reconstructing the evolution of relief, making correlations, calculating rates, and estimating recurrence periods. A theme of major concern facing people today is the possible warming of the planet due to the release of greenhouse gases into the environment. Investigations conducted by the scientific community show that this temperature increase is at least partially anthropogenic. Given this more-than-probable cause and effect relationship, the most sensible and prudent path is to design and apply mitigation measures to alleviate this heating that can negatively affect both the natural environment and human society. The information that Geomorphology can provide on the recent past (Historical Geomorphology) may be very useful in making predictions on the activity of these potentially dangerous processes in the future and on the possible effects of environmental changes. The aim of this book is to provide a general vision of the multiple aspects of Geomorphology and to provide a methodological foundation to approach the study of various branches of geomorphology. To this end, the book contains a basic bibliography that can be used for future research. In addition, applied aspects of Geomorphology are covered at the end of each chapter to provide knowledge of the activities of geomorphologists in the professional world.

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.