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# Time, Space, and Causality in Geomorphology

## Details

**Authors** Schumm, S. A. and Lichty, R. W.

**Year** 1965

**Publisher** American Journal of Science

**Kind of work** article

**Discipline** Geology

**Secondary disciplines** Geography, Hydrology

**Applied** false

[Read it at the publisher](https://doi.org/10.2475/ajs.263.2.110) 
10.2475/ajs.263.2.110

## In authors' words

### What they set out to do (purpose)

To show that the distinction between cause and effect in landform development depends on the span of time and the size of the geomorphic system under study.

### How they did it (methods)

Conceptual analysis of geomorphic systems at graded time spans and areal scales, using channel morphology as the example.

### What they found (results)

The same variable can be dependent or independent according to the time span and spatial scale chosen. Over geologic time a landform is a stage in an erosion cycle and depends on time. Over short spans the components of a geomorphic system can be treated as in steady state or dynamic equilibrium and independent of time. Cause and effect are therefore defined relative to the temporal and spatial frame of analysis, not fixed properties of the system.

## Commentary

### In short

The paper shows that whether one thing counts as the cause of another depends on the vantage point, here the time span and the size of the system taken as the whole. A variable that is a response at one level becomes a condition at another, so causal relations are only well defined once the part-whole level and the frame are specified.

**Patterns it shows** D, S, R, P

Shows the structure is there

**Added** 2026-10-11

**How to cite this** Schumm, S. A. and Lichty, R. W. (1965). Time, Space, and Causality in Geomorphology. American Journal of Science.