| Abstract: | Developments in dating techniques applicable to the late Tertiary and Quaternary are giving us the ability to date past land surfaces. Where reasonable assumptions about the nature of such past surfaces and their partial preservation may be made, they can be reconstructed. This permits the contouring and measurement of the subsequent dissection, allowing not only calculation of the average rate of erosion over the elapsed time, but also information on the pattern of incision. Two examples where this has been attempted are present; both are dissected till surfaces in eastern England, one of Anglian and the other of Devensian age. The approach quantifies the disparity between the incision of valleys and the general denudational lowering of the surface which characterizes many landscapes. The technique is not only of academic interest, but potentially forms a useful line of approach to the assessment of the safety of the burying toxic wastes. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
