ROUGH MATERIAL
SHAPES, TEXTURE
"That additive and subtractive topography-forming
processes are so commensurate is one of Earth’s
extraordinary attributes. The landscape of other rocky
planets and moons look alien precisely because these
worlds lack such a balance in the rates of creative and
destructive topographic agents.[…]
However, life itself can alter the processes that shape
topography: there is strong evidence that colonisation of
land by plants in early Silurian time slowed global erosion
rates and led to the emergence of rivers with well-defined
channels. (It has taken humans only a few centuries to
reverse that trend; by some estimates, modern erosion
rates—accelerated by deforestation, agriculture, desertification,
and urbanisation—are orders of magnitude higher than
geologic averages.)" —MARCIA BJORNERUD / TIMEFULLNESS
