Physical Processes

The mechanisms that shape the physical earth this atlas documents: erosion and deposition, plate tectonics and volcanism, glacial and periglacial action, atmospheric and climate dynamics, the movement of water through rivers and oceans, and the chemical cycling that builds soil, grouped into six sub categories by the physical-geography subdiscipline that studies each mechanism. A physical process is the cause; the landform or body of water it produces is filed in its own neighboring band, so a reader can follow either the mechanism or the feature it left behind.