A paleogeomorphologist proposes a classification of the earth's landforms that would reflect the shaping of surface relief as a continuous process since the beginnings of the earth. In his view, the relief of former outer surfaces of the earth, now invisible to the observer, needs to be included in such a classification on the same basis as the relief of the earth's present surface. Accordingly all of the earth's relief forms are broken down into two basic categories: visible and invisible relief. Visible relief includes both contemporary landform types, shaped by on-going processes, and ancient landforms, including half-buried, relict and exhumed forms. The ancient reflief of invisible surfaces falls into buried, transformed buried and reconstructed types. The term “buried”, in contrast to present practice, needs to be restricted to invisible relief that has remained virtually intact after burial (under a sedimentary mantle, continental ice or the waters of oceans and large lakes). Any invisible relief t...