Original paper
L. C. King’s “Planation remnants upon high lands”: Discussion
Twidale, C. R.
Zeitschrift für Geomorphologie Volume 22 Issue 1 (1978), p. 118 - 122
21 references
published: Apr 7, 1978
ArtNo. ESP022002201008, Price: 29.00 €
Abstract
Professor King has long envisaged a grand design in the shaping of the land surface. He asserts that similar cycles of planation and periods of diastrophism are common to many parts of the world and that, in consequence, erosion surfaces of low relief and of comparable age-ranges are to be found in many of the continental areas. Thus King long ago suggested that three major cycles and surfaces, of later Mesozoic, early Tertiary and late Tertiary-Quaternary ages occur in southern Africa and South America (King 1940, 1962) and indeed in Australia also (King 1950). In general terms one can but support the proposition for surfaces of such ages have been mapped and found to be of the age-ranges indicated (see for example Twidale 1956, 1966 a, 1969). In a more recent paper however Professor King has propounded a much more elaborate scheme of world wide erosional surfaces and cycles (King 1976). He now suggests that six periods of planation can be recognised in the landscape in many parts of the world: Gondwana, of Jurassic age; Kretacic (early to mid Cretaceous); Moorland (late Cretaceous to early Miocene); Rolling (Miocene); Widespread (Pliocene); and Youngest (Quaternary). The occurrence of these surfaces is described from many parts of the world, including the Mt. Lofty and Flinders Ranges of South Australia. King (1976, p. 134) also issues a cautionary note, advocating that the occurrence of the surfaces should be “checked with the known facts of local geology”.
Keywords
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