THE AGE OF RELIEF

Abstract

The notion of the age of relief has been differently treated by different investigators. To understand better the history of the development of relief in time, it is necessary to distinguish three main time categories: 1) the length of the relief formation (embracing a period from the beginning and up to the end of its formation, that is up to the beginning of the relict stage); 2) geological age of the relief (the moment of complition of the relief formation and its passing into a relict stage), and 3) the length of existence of the relict relief (a period within which the final form of relief lasts as a relict). The stage of relief formation and the stage of the existence of relict relief are limited by critical age boundaries; the first by the original and the main boundaries, the latter of which coincides with the geological age of relief, the second — by the main and the final stages. All the three time characteristics must be shown on maps by geological indices.