Adrian E Scheidegger – författare

The idea of the present symposium was conceived a few years ago by the Working Group 3 (WG3) of the Interunion Commission of Geodynamics (ICG). Now that its Program has been completed, it was decided to present the results of that part of the activities of the WG3 indicated in the symposium title. The writer was asked by the WG3 to coordinate the contributions. The European Geophysical Society (EGS) kindly offered to host the symposium during its meeting in Vienna in September, 1979, and Springer-Verlag in Vienna agreed to publish a "Proceedings" volume of the Symposium. These efforts are gratefully acknowledged. The whole subject matter of the symposium was divided into 6 "themes". The first concerns in situ stress determinations, the second deals with stresses as inferred from fault-plane solutions of earthquakes, the third geomorphic and geological effects of stresses, the fourth petrofabrics and stresses, the fifth recent displacements and the sixth geomechanical models. Upon the recommendation of the WG3, contributors were invited to present papers falling under the themes mentioned. The symposium, how­ ever, was also open to unsolicited contributors in the general call for papers for the EGS-meeting. It is hoped that the papers will present a fairly complete picture of the results obtained in the study of tectonic stresses in the Alpine-Mediterranean region during the ten years of the duration of the International Geodynamics Program.

Morphotectonics, the relation between geomorphology and (neo)tectonics is fundamental to the understanding of landscape evolution. Stressing mainly the quantitative interpretation of field observations, this monograph compares the morphological structure of drainage systems, river courses, glacial forms, volcanic landscapes and mass movements with joint orientations. The latter are indicative of the neotectonic stresses; and thus inferences on the genesis of the morphological forms can be drawn. The data on outcrops on all six continents and on islands in all major oceans have been acquired to a large extent by the author himself. The book, therefore, represents a first-hand account of the work and its relevance which has been done worldwide over the last 30 years.

Morphotectonics, the relation between geomorphology and (neo)tectonics is fundamental to the understanding of landscape evolution. Stressing mainly the quantitative interpretation of field observations, this monograph compares the morphological structure of drainage systems, river courses, glacial forms, volcanic landscapes and mass movements with joint orientations. The latter are indicative of the neotectonic stresses; and thus inferences on the genesis of the morphological forms can be drawn. The data on outcrops on all six continents and on islands in all major oceans have been acquired to a large extent by the author himself. The book, therefore, represents a first-hand account of the work and its relevance which has been done worldwide over the last 30 years.

The surface features of the Earth are commonly split into two categories, the first of which comprises those features that are due to processes occurring inside the solid Earth (endogenic features) and the second those that are due to processes occurring outside the solid Earth (exogenic features). Specifically, the endogenic features are treated in the science of geodynamics, the exogenic features in the science of geomorphology. I have treated the theoretical aspects of the endogenic features in my Principles of Geodynamics, and it is my aim to supplement my earlier book with a discussion of the theory of the exogenic features, the taxonomy of the latter having been discussed in my Systematic Geomorphology. It is my hope that the three books will together pre­ sent a reasonably coherent, if necessarily incomplete, account of theoretical geology. Contrary to endogenic phenomena, exogenic processes can often be directly observed as they occur: the action of a river, the develop­ ment of a slope, and the evolution of a shore platform are all suffi­ ciently rapid so that they can be seen as they take place. This has the result that in geomorphology one is generally on much less specula­ tive ground regarding the mechanics of the processes at work than one is in geodynamics.