Landscapes and landforms of England and Wales / Ландшафты и формы рельефа Англии и Уэльса

Landforms and landscapes vary enormously across the Earth, from high mountains to endless plains. At a smaller scale, Nature often surprises us by creating shapes which look improbable. Many physical landscapes are so immensely beautiful that they have received the highest possible recognition—they hold the status of World Heritage properties. Apart from often being immensely scenic, landscapes tell stories which not uncommonly can be traced back in time for tens of million years and include unique events. In addition, many landscapes owe their appearance and harmony not solely to natural forces. For centuries, or even millennia, they have been shaped by humans who modified hillslopes, river courses, and coastlines, and erected structures which often blend with the natural landforms to form inseparable entities. These landscapes are studied by Geomorphology—‘the Science of Scenery’—a part of Earth Sciences that focuses on landforms, their assemblages, the surface and subsurface processes that moulded them in the past and that change them today. The shapes of landforms and the regularities of their spatial distribution, their origin, evolution, and ages are the subject of researchapter Geomorphology is also a science of considerable practical importance since many geomorphic processes occur so suddenly and unexpectedly, and with such a force, that they pose significant hazards to human populations and not uncommonly result in considerable damage or even casualties <...>