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Fundamentals of Geomorphology cover

Geography

Geography

Fundamentals of Geomorphology

Richard Huggett; Emma Shuttleworth

A broad introductory textbook on the study of landforms and the processes that shape them. It presents geomorphology as a field linking geology, climate, hydrology and ecology, treating tectonic, weathering, fluvial, glacial, aeolian and coastal systems, and ending with long-term landscape change.

Prerequisites: An introductory physical geography or earth science course is helpful but not required.

Difficulty Level
Intermediate
Academic Level
Undergraduate
geomorphologylandformsphysical geographyearth surface processesTextbook

01 / Reading Guide

Reading Guide

Citation

Huggett, R., & Shuttleworth, E. (2023). Fundamentals of Geomorphology (5th ed.). Routledge.

Chapter Summary

The book has eighteen chapters in four parts and runs to 682 pages, with an appendix on the geological timescale. Routledge describes it as a comprehensive introduction that looks at the world's landforms from a systems perspective, covering the basics of Earth-surface forms and processes alongside recent developments. The chapter page spans in the publisher's chapter metadata show where the weight lies: the longest chapters are on rivers (about 60 pages), karst, coasts and glaciers, each of 40 to 50 pages.

Part I, Chapters 1–5: What Is Geomorphology?; Introducing Process and Form; Introducing History; Geomorphology and the Earth System; Life and Humans as Geomorphic Agents

The opening part defines the subject, including its relation to society, then sets out the ideas used throughout: process and form, historical explanation, and landforms as parts of geomorphic systems. The last two chapters place geomorphology within the wider Earth system and treat living things and people as agents that shape the surface.

Part II, Chapters 6–7: Plate Tectonics and Associated Structural Landforms; Volcanoes, Folds, and Faults

The endogenic part covers landforms controlled by structure: those tied to plate tectonics, and those produced by volcanoes and by folds, faults and joints.

Part III, Chapters 8–17: Weathering and Associated Landforms; Weathering, Regolith, and Soils; Hillslopes; Fluvial Landscapes; Glacial and Glaciofluvial Landscapes; Periglacial Landscapes; Aeolian Landscapes; Coastal and Subsea Landscapes; Karst Landscapes; Planetary Geomorphology

The longest part works through the exogenic agents: weathering and its products, hillslopes, running water, ice and meltwater, ground ice and frost, wind, the sea, and limestone terrain. It closes with a chapter on landforms beyond Earth, which Routledge lists among the book's topics.

Part IV, Chapter 18: Long-Term Geomorphology

The final chapter takes the long view of landscape evolution and ancient landforms, in the part titled Deep-Time Perspectives.

Key Concepts

Part I: Frameworks

  • Process and form: the pairing of surface processes with the landforms they produce, introduced as a basic way of reading landscapes.
  • Geomorphic systems: treating landforms as parts of connected systems, the "systems perspective" Routledge emphasises.
  • Geomorphic agents: living organisms and humans as forces that modify the land surface.

Parts II–IV: Landform Systems

  • Endogenic and exogenic processes: the book's division between internally driven landforms (tectonics, volcanoes, folds and faults) and those shaped by surface agents.
  • Regolith and soils: weathering products treated in their own chapter.
  • Process domains: hillslope, fluvial, glacial, periglacial, aeolian, coastal and karst landscapes, each with its own chapter.
  • Planetary and long-term landscapes: the extension of landform study to other planetary bodies and to deep geological time.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

  • Breadth in a single volume. Routledge's listing covers the full range from tectonic landforms to extraterrestrial ones. Andrew Goudie, quoted by the publisher, singles out its breadth, international perspective, clarity of expression and illustrations; Jonathan Phillips calls the book thorough yet concise and notes that it covers established ideas alongside current ones.
  • Clear organisation. The four parts separate frameworks, internal processes, surface processes and deep time, so a reader can see where a given chapter sits.
  • Teaching support. The publisher lists chapter summaries, guides to further reading and an extensive glossary of key terms, hundreds of colour figures and photographs, and online resources for students and instructors.
  • Current topics. Goudie notes that this edition's treatment of the Anthropocene and of planetary landscapes reflects new developments in the field.

Limitations

  • Length. At 682 pages the book is a full reference for more than one course, and few programmes will read it end to end.
  • No chapter on methods. The contents list has no chapter on measuring, dating or modelling landforms; a textbook that introduces those tools, or a quantitative treatment of the physics of landscapes, is a useful complement.
  • Little hydrology. Rivers and hillslopes are covered, but the contents contain no separate treatment of hydrology, so a combined geomorphology and hydrology course needs a hydrology text as well.
  • Chapter titles vary between listings. The publisher's web page lists some chapters under slightly different names (for example Coastal Landscapes and Planetary Landscapes) from those in the electronic edition's metadata, so check against the copy in hand.

Where It Fits in the Course

Huggett and Shuttleworth is the broad landform-by-landform survey in this course. Goudie and Viles's Landscapes and Geomorphology: A Very Short Introduction is a brief first orientation to the field and its history that suits readers who want an overview before committing to 680 pages. Bierman and Montgomery's Key Concepts in Geomorphology is another undergraduate textbook, one that also introduces the tools used to measure, date and model landscapes, so it covers the methods that Huggett omits.

For more depth, Anderson and Anderson's Geomorphology: The Mechanics and Chemistry of Landscapes builds each topic from conservation laws and simple models and is the quantitative next step after the descriptive and conceptual treatment here. The two hydrology books, Hendriks's compact Introduction to Physical Hydrology and Dingman's quantitative Physical Hydrology, supply the water-cycle material that Huggett treats only through its fluvial and hillslope chapters.

How to Use This Book

Routledge presents the book as accessible, lively and aimed at undergraduate geography and earth-science students. An introductory course in physical geography or earth science helps with vocabulary but is not essential.

A practical plan is to read Part I (Chapters 1–5) first; it supplies the concepts every later chapter relies on. Then follow the course: Chapters 6–7 for structure and tectonics, and from Part III the chapters on weathering, hillslopes and rivers as the usual core, with glacial, periglacial, aeolian, coastal and karst chapters chosen according to the landscapes being studied. Chapters 17 and 18 suit students interested in planetary surfaces or landscape evolution over long timescales.

Use the chapter summaries and glossary to check understanding, and the further-reading guides to move to specialist literature. Because the book is descriptive and conceptual, readers who need quantitative treatment should pair it with one of the more mathematical texts named above.