Fluvialism or diluvialism? Changing views on superfloods and landscape change

In a series of recent articles, the possibility was raised that, owing to the occasional impact of asteroids and comets in the oceans, lowlands on continental margins might be prone to superflooding (Huggett, 1988a; 1988b; 1989a). It was suggested that a number of landscape features, including diverted drainage systems, gorges, valley meanders and extensive sheets of gravel might have been created by these superfloods. At the conclusion of the 1989 article it was noted that many landscape changes that might be ascribed to the action of superwaves are the same as the landscape changes accredited to the Noachian Deluge by the old school of diluvialists led at its zenith in the 1820s by William Buckland (see Huggett, 1989b). Thus, the bombardment hypothesis, through its prediction of superwaves and superfloods, leads to a new brand of diluvialism. This article explores the nature of neodiluvialism a little further, drawing attention to a growing body of evidence suggesting that, owing to various agencies, truly catastrophic floods have occurred in the past. It also discusses landscape features which can be expected to have been fashioned by diluvial, rather than by fluvial, action.