Julius Büdel

Julius Büdel (8 August 1903 – 28 August 1983) was a German geomorphologist noted for his work on the influence of climate in shaping landscapes and landforms.[2] In his work Büdel stressed the importance of inherited landforms in present-day landscapes and argued that many landforms are the result of a combination of processes, and not of a single process.[1] Büdel estimated that 95% of mid-latitude landforms are relict.[3][1] Büdel studied both cold-climate processes in Svalbard and "tropical" weathering processes in India to understand the origin of the relief of Central Europe, which he argued was a palimpsest of landforms formed at different times and under different climates.[1] For Central Europe Büdel concluded that in Late Cretaceous to Early Pliocene times etchplains formed. Then in Late Pliocene to Early Pleistocene times a transition period occurred in landscape forming processes. Finally in the Late Pleistocene periglaciation and deep permafrost made Central Europe a place of "excessive valley cutting". Holocene developments would not have affected much of the landscape other than adding a deep soil cover.[4]

"Büdel" redirects here. For the islands in the Antarctic region, see Büdel Islands.

Julius Büdel
Born	(1903-08-08)8 August 1903
Died	28 August 1983(1983-08-28) (aged 80)
Nationality	German
Citizenship	Germany, West Germany
Known for	Morphogenetic zones Relief generations
Awards	Albrecht-Penck-Medaille (1968) Victoria Medal (1981)
Scientific career
Fields	Climatic geomorphology
Institutions	University of Würzburg
Influences	Siegfried Passarge[1] Albrecht Penck[1]

Through his life Büdel published three influential morphoclimatic zoning schemes. The first, in 1948, was followed by another in 1963, and a final version in 1977.[5] Büdel's schemes emphasise planation and valley-cutting in relation to climate, arguing that valley-cutting is dominant in subpolar regions while planation is so in the tropics.[3]

Much of Büdel's 1977 book Klima-geomorphologie was considered outdated as of 2006. However its pioneering approaches make it a classic in geomorphological literature.[1]

The Büdel Islands in Antarctica were named after him.[6]

Morphogenetic zones according to Büdel (1977)

German name[7]	English translation[3]	Latitude[3]	Example[3]
	Glacial zone (and immediately adjacent area)	90–65° N 60–90° S	Greenland, Antarctica
Die subpolare Zone exzessiver Talbildung	Subpolar zone of excessive valley cutting	80–60° N	Canadian Arctic, Taymyr Peninsula
	Taiga valley cutting zone, in the permafrost region	70–50° N	Russian Far East
Ektropische Zone retardierter Talbildung	Ectropic zone of retarded valley cutting	60–35° N 35–55° S	Most of Europe, Patagonia, Eurasian Steppe
	Subtropic zone of mixed relief development, etesian region	40–30° N 30–35° S	Morocco, Syria, Central Chile.
	Subtropic zone of mixed relief development, monsoonal region	45–25° N 20–40° S	Uruguay, Eastern Cape, South Korea
Die randtropische Zone exzessiver Flächenbildung	Peritropical zone of excessive planation	30° N–30° S	Venezuela, Angola, Mozambique, Vietnam
Die innertropische Zone partieller Flächenbildung	Inter-tropical zone of partial planation	20° N–10° S	Panama, Gabon, Sumatra
Warme Trockenzone der Flächenerhaltung und traditionalen Weiterbildung (vorweg durch Sandschwemmebenen)	Warm arid zone of surface preservation and traditionally continued development, largely through fluvio-aeolian sandplains	35–10° N 5–30° S	Atacama, Sahara, Thar, Australian Outback
Winterharte Trockenzone der Flächenüberprägung (Transformation) vorweg durch Pedimenteund Glacis	Winter cold arid zone of surface transformation, largely through pediments and glacis	50–30° N	Gobi, Taklamakan, Maranjab

See also

• André Cailleux
• Jan Dylik
• Jean Tricart

References

1. Migoń, Piotr (2006). "Büdel, J. 1982: Climatic geomorphology. Princeton: Princeton University Press. (Translation of Klima-geomorphologie, Berlin-Stuttgart: Gebrüder Borntraeger, 1977.)". Progress in Physical Geography. 30 (1): 99–103. doi:10.1191/0309133306pp473xx.
2. Mensching, Horst G. (1983), "Julius Büdel und sein konzept der klima-geomorphologie – rückschau und würdigung", Erkunde (in German), 38 (3): 157–166
3. Sarre, R.D. (1993). "Climatic geomorphology". In Kearey, Philip (ed.). The Encyclopedia of the Solid Earth Sciences. Blackwell Science Ltd. p. 112–114. ISBN 978-0-632-03699-8.
4. Sarre, R.D. (1993). "Climato-genetic geomorphology". In Kearey, Philip (ed.). The Encyclopedia of the Solid Earth Sciences. Blackwell Science Ltd. p. 114. ISBN 978-0-632-03699-8.
5. Gutiérrez, Mateo; Gutiérrez, Francisco (2013). "Climatic Geomorphology". Treatise on Geomorphology. 13. pp. 115–131.
6. Geographic Names Information System of the United States Geological Survey
7. Klima-Geomorphologie