We live in the Quaternary Ice Age, the last million years when large ice sheets covered much of North America and Eurasia, with successive glaciations lasting about 90,000 years interspersed with interglaciations lasting about 10,000 years, such as our preset Holocene interglaciation. Quaternary glaciations were discovered and mapped by glacial geologists from evidence for glacial erosion and deposition on a large scale. Glaciology began as a descriptive branch of geology and has become a quantitative branch of physics. Glaciology and glacial geology are two sides of the same coin. Glaciologists study ice dynamics to model present and past ice sheets. Glacial geologists study the evidence produced by ice dynamics, evidence that controls the models. This book is written for glacial geologists that have a modest exposure to mathematics so they can understand the fundamental link between glaciology and glacial geology. This link is the height of an ice sheet above its bed. Ice height depends primarily on the strength of ice-bed coupling. The stronger the coupling, the higher the ice, and therefore the larger the ice sheet. Glacial geology allows an assessment of ice-bed coupling. Coupling weakens under the interior of an ice sheet when a frozen bed thaws and thereby allows ice to slide over the bed to produce glacial geology by erosion and deposition processes. Coupling weakens much more near ice-sheet margins where ice moves as fast currents called ice streams, under which ice-bed coupling vanishes where basal water drowns bedrock bumps or soaks basal sediments. The book consists of seven chapters. Chapter One shows how glacial geology can be used to quantify the strength of ice-bed coupling. Chapter Two quantifies how coupling is weakened when a frozen bed thaws for slow sheet flow in the interior of an ice sheet, thereby lowering the ice surface. Chapter Three quantifies how the surface is lowered much more toward the margin of an ice sheet where basal water partly downs the bed along linear topography (river valleys, coastal straits, etc.), allowing for slow sheet flow to become fast stream flow. Chapter Four quantifies the ability of large partly confined floating ice shelves to reduce the discharge from fast ice streams entering the sea. Chapter Five discusses glacial geology produced by Northern Hemisphere ice sheets during a cycle of Quaternary glaciation, with a white hole needed to initiate an ice sheet, marine ice transgression needed to grow it, and marine ice instability needed to terminate it; these are all linked to glacial geology. Chapter Six shows how the Arctic ice sheet can be reconstructed during a cycle of Quaternary glaciation using glacial geology. Chapter Seven shows how glacial geology can be mapped under the Antarctic ice sheet as it exists today, with an emphasis on ongoing gravitational collapse of the Western Antarctic Ice Sheet, grounded mostly below sea level in the Western Hemisphere.

The new Second Edition of Glacial Geology provides a modern, comprehensive summary of glacial geology and geomorphology. It is has been thoroughly revised and updated from the original First Edition. This book will appeal to all students interested in the landforms and sediments that make up glacial landscapes. The aim of the book is to outline glacial landforms and sediments and to provide the reader with the tools required to interpret glacial landscapes. It describes how glaciers work and how the processes of glacial erosion and deposition which operate within them are recorded in the glacial landscape. The Second Edition is presented in the same clear and concise format as the First Edition, providing detailed explanations that are not cluttered with unnecessary detail. Additions include a new chapter on Glaciations around the Globe, demonstrating the range of glacial environments present on Earth today and a new chapter on Palaeoglaciology, explaining how glacial landforms and sediments are used in ice-sheet reconstructions. Like the original book, text boxes are used throughout to explain key concepts and to introduce students to case study material from the glacial literature. Newly updated sections on Further Reading are also included at the end of each chapter to point the reader towards key references. The book is illustrated throughout with colour photographs and illustrations.

Field Techniques in Glaciology and Glacial Geomorphology is the first text to provide this essential information in a single comprehensive volume. Coverage includes: The role of field data acquisition in the broader disciplines of glaciology and glacial geomorphology Logistical preparations for fieldwork Field techniques in glaciology such as investigations on ice and meltwaters Field techniques in glacial geomorphology ranging from investigations on glacial landforms and sediments International case studies show each method in practice

The principles of glacier physics are developed from basic laws in this up-to-date third edition for advanced students and researchers.

For undergraduate-level courses in Glacial Geology and Geomorphology taken by science and non-science students. Featuring an accessible, non-mathematical, but rigorous conceptual treatment with numerous very simple explanatory illustrations this introduction to the basic principles of glaciology, geomorphology, and geology serves as a portal to the more advanced literature in the field and to discussion and research of the local situation. Focusing on processes and history (not just descriptions), it helps students understand how glaciers form and move, what effect they have, when and where they have affected the Earth, and the consequences of ice ages.

This updated and expanded version of the second edition explains the physical principles underlying the behaviour of glaciers and ice sheets. The text has been revised in order to keep pace with the extensive developments which have occurred since 1981. A new chapter, of major interest, concentrates on the deformation of subglacial till. The book concludes with a chapter on information regarding past climate and atmospheric composition obtainable from ice cores.

Glacier Science and Environmental Change is an authoritative and comprehensive reference work on contemporary issues in glaciology. It explores the interface between glacier science and environmental change, in the past, present, and future. Written by the world’s foremost authorities in the subject and researchers at the scientific frontier where conventional wisdom of approach comes face to face with unsolved problems, this book provides: state-of-the-art reviews of the key topics in glaciology and related disciplines in environmental change cutting-edge case studies of the latest research an interdisciplinary synthesis of the issues that draw together the research efforts of glaciologists and scientists from other areas such as geologists, hydrologists, and climatologists color-plate section (with selected extra figures provided in color at www.blackwellpublishing.com/knight). The topics in this book have been carefully chosen to reflect current priorities in research, the interdisciplinary nature of the subject, and the developing relationship between glaciology and studies of environmental change. Glacier Science and Environmental Change is essential reading for advanced undergraduates, postgraduate research students, and professional researchers in glaciology, geology, geography, geophysics, climatology, and related disciplines.

Sediments are the most valuable form of physical evidence for past Earth surface processes. They have the potential to build up an archive of events and provide a window into the past. Through careful examination of sediments the shifting patterns of surface processes across space and time are revealed, allowing us to reconstruct past environments and environmental change. A Practical Guide to the Study of Glacial Sediments is a guide to the standard techniques employed to read the sedimentary record of former glaciers and ice sheets. It demonstrates that the often complex and fragmentary glacial sedimentary record can, when examined systematically and rationally, provide detailed insights into former environments and climates in places where no other evidence is available. The complementary techniques covered in this book include: facies description, grain size analysis, clast form assessment, clast macrofabric analysis, micromorphology, particle lithology and assessment of engineering properties. They yield consistent and meaningful results in a range of glacial depositional environments throughout the world, from the high Arctic to the Himalayas. A Practical Guide to the Study of Glacial Sediments provides students and researchers with a clear and accessible guide to recording and interpreting glacial successions wherever the location.