Physical geography comes of age

Physical Geography was founded in 1980 and thus, in a traditional sense, comes of age in the year 2000. From modest beginnings, it has appeared bimonthly since 1993. Over the past 21 years, the journal has published 537 papers in 90 issues, including, in broadly defined and often overlapping categories, 182 in climatology, 200 in geomorphology, 94 in biogeography, 47 in hydrology and glaciology, and 14 strictly in general theory. Whereas the United States provides the principal regional focus of these papers, almost one-quarter of those published over the past decade have concerned other areas of the world. The content of papers over the period reflects the changing emphases and methods of physical geography and related fields, in turn a measure of the continuing vitality and relevance of the discipline.