Abstract
Despite the efforts of some workers to deny their very existence, planation surfaces are real and worthy of study. Drainage patterns provide insights into their age and deformation. They provide valuable information on the evolution of passive continental margins. Their frequent thick cover of weathering products tells us of past hydrology and climate. Several different mechanisms can cause planation, such as pedimentation and relief inversion and so lead to valuable process studies. Successive planation surfaces may indicate tectonic or climatic histories. Above all, they show that landscape formation and regolith history are on the same timescale as global tectonics and biological evolution.
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Ollier, C. (2014). Some Principles in the Study of Planation Surfaces. In: Rabassa, J., Ollier, C. (eds) Gondwana Landscapes in southern South America. Springer Earth System Sciences. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7702-6_3
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