Physiography
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Physiography. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the science of the earth's surface features and conditions and how they came to be what they are. The term physiography is sometimes used in a wider sense to denote a general introduction to the physical and biological sciences, but in America it is commonly used as interchangeable with physical geography. In this sense, however, it is not restricted to a mere description of existing features of the earth or to the features of the land alone, but includes the study of the ocean and the ocean basins, together with the his tory of the factors and forces which have produced and are still producing geographical changes. In this latter respect it will readily be seen how physiography verges on one hand into geology and, on the other hand, how it is related to certain branches of meteorology. Two sets of agents have given the earth its present relief forms: -(1) subterranean forces and changes, producing crustal movements of elevation, depression, and compression of the surface; and (2) socalled agents of erosion or denudation, such as water, wind, glaciers, frost, etc., etc., which have been wearing away surface features and leveling hills and mountains for countless ages. The continental platforms and the great ocean basins constitute the first order of relief features of the earth. The second order is composed of the topographical features of the continents and the ocean floors themselves. Land features are familiar as mountain ranges, plateaus, and plains. But the ocean floor also has a somewhat similar relief, although far less sharp and pronounced, owing chiefly to the nature of the element beneath which it lies, the comparative absence of erosion, and the tendency of sediment to fill up depressions. It is not, however, either flat or uniform. Of depressions there are so-called basins, troughs, and trenches, the deepest depressions known as "deeps." Of elevations there being are rises, Telegraph Plateau of the North Atlantic ridges, and plateaus, like the Ocean, whose position made possible the laying of the first Atlantic cables. Volcanoes also are numerous in parts of the ocean, and volcanic cones have been built up to the surface ing the basis of islands and groups of and far above it, formislands which are often of considerable extent and importance.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
. See America ; Asia ; Europe ; Africa ; Australia ; Air ; Water ; Rain ; Wind ; Gulf Stream ; Arctic Regions ; Antarctic Regions; Glacier ; Climate ; Salt ; Lime ; Alkali ; Oasis ; Mountains; Alps ; Volcano ; Geyser ; Petroleum ; Coal Also articles on the various countries and bodies of water.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's in 1921 credited the earth's relief to "subterranean forces" of elevation, depression and compression, with no mention of drifting continents — Alfred Wegener had published his continental-drift hypothesis only a few years earlier, and it was still widely dismissed. The mechanism was settled in the 1960s, when magnetic surveys of the sea floor and earthquake mapping produced plate tectonics: the "ridges and plateaus" Collier's noted, including the Telegraph Plateau that carried the first Atlantic cables, turned out to be a globe-encircling mid-ocean ridge where new crust is made. Sounding has also transformed the second half of the entry — the Challenger Deep is now measured at roughly 11,000 metres, and the ocean floor is mapped rather than sketched. The word itself has faded: American usage now favours "physical geography" for the descriptive side and "geomorphology" for the study of landform history.
Written for this edition, 2026.