Introduction

Abstract

The design of geomorphology textbooks and edited volumes on geomorphology in the second half of the 20th century has largely kept to well-trodden avenues: structural geomorphology, historical geomorphology, process geomorphology, and climatic geomorphology. A few textbooks have approached the analysis of landforms from the angle of lithology and its specific expressions in the landscape: the geomorphology of granites, of limestones, of sandstones, of sand bodies, and, of course, volcanic geomorphology. Basement terrains, however, which may incorporate most of the aforementioned rock types but are mostly made up of a wide range of metamorphic and igneous rocks, have virtually never been analysed as geomorphological objects in their own right. This is somewhat surprising considering the extensive continuum of igneous and metamorphic outcrops that occurs around the globe in the form cratons, shields, and mountainous upland regions known in Europe as massifs anciens, or Mittelgebirge. Maybe such a transverse approach to geomorphology, which in effect requires drawing upon most of the aforementioned facets of textbook geomorphology, has been too daunting an exercise to produce an accessible and readable synthesis. This book attempts to reach this objective, but at a cost: that of restricting its scope to the work achieved in francophone literature rather than any other. Although seemingly arbitrary, such a restriction serves the primary purpose of maintaining a huge list of existing international references to manageable proportions; it also seeks to reflect the ideas and findings of a particular school of geomorphology established in France.