Physical Processes

Physical processes are the earth's own natural mechanisms, the forces of erosion, tectonics, ice, climate, water and soil formation that shape landforms and bodies of water over time rather than a place in its own right, grouped here by which physical-geography subdiscipline studies the mechanism, geomorphology, tectonics and volcanism, glaciology, climatology, hydrology and oceanography, or pedology and biogeochemistry. Belongs here: a named natural process or cycle this atlas tracks as its own subject. Does not belong here: the landform or body of water a process shapes, held under those separate entity types, or a specific historical event such as one eruption or one earthquake, which belongs to history rather than to the general process that produced it.