Short answers, pulled from the story.
Grove Karl Gilbert conducted intense studies of the Blue Gate Pass landscapes in Utah during 1875 and 1876. His notebooks from that period form an observational foundation for many geomorphology studies.
Geomorphology defines itself as the study of how topographic and bathymetric features originate and evolve through physical, chemical, or biological processes near Earth's surface. This discipline seeks to understand why landscapes look the way they do today while predicting future changes using field observations, experiments, and numerical modeling.
Greek historian Herodotus argued from soil observations in the 5th century BC that the Nile delta was actively growing into the Mediterranean Sea. He estimated its age based on these visible changes.
William Morris Davis developed his geographical cycle model between 1884 and 1899 as an elaboration of James Hutton's uniformitarianism theory. This framework posited that rivers carve deep valleys until side valleys erode, flattening terrain again at lower elevation before tectonic uplift restarts the cycle.
Wind-eroded alcoves demonstrating these shaping forces clearly exist near Moab Utah. Aeolian processes serve as important agents where water and mass flow mobilize less material than wind in regions with sparse vegetation like deserts.