A passionate eyewitness account of the mysteries and looming demise of glaciers—and what their fate means for our shared future The ice sheets and glaciers that cover one-tenth of Earth's land surface are in grave peril. High in the Alps, Andes, and Himalaya, once-indomitable glaciers are retreating, even dying. Meanwhile, in Antarctica, thinning glaciers may be unlocking vast quantities of methane stored for millions of years beneath the ice. In Ice Rivers, renowned glaciologist Jemma Wadham offers a searing personal account of glaciers and the rapidly unfolding crisis that they—and we—face. Taking readers on a personal journey from Europe and Asia to Antarctica and South America, Wadham introduces majestic glaciers around the globe as individuals—even friends—each with their own unique character and place in their community. She challenges their first appearance as silent, passive, and lifeless, and reveals that glaciers are, in fact, as alive as a forest or soil, teeming with microbial life and deeply connected to almost everything we know. They influence crucial systems on which people depend, from lucrative fisheries to fertile croplands, and represent some of the most sensitive and dynamic parts of our world. Their fate is inescapably entwined with our own, and unless we act to abate the greenhouse warming of our planet the potential consequences are almost unfathomable. A riveting blend of cutting-edge research and tales of encounters with polar bears and survival under the midnight sun, Ice Rivers is an unforgettable portrait of—and love letter to—our vanishing icy wildernesses.

The earth’s cryosphere, which includes snow, glaciers, ice caps, ice sheets, ice shelves, sea ice, river and lake ice, and permafrost, contains about 75% of the earth’s fresh water. It exists at almost all latitudes, from the tropics to the poles, and plays a vital role in controlling the global climate system. It also provides direct visible evidence of the effect of climate change, and, therefore, requires proper understanding of its complex dynamics. This encyclopedia mainly focuses on the various aspects of snow, ice and glaciers, but also covers other cryospheric branches, and provides up-to-date information and basic concepts on relevant topics. It includes alphabetically arranged and professionally written, comprehensive and authoritative academic articles by well-known international experts in individual fields. The encyclopedia contains a broad spectrum of topics, ranging from the atmospheric processes responsible for snow formation; transformation of snow to ice and changes in their properties; classification of ice and glaciers and their worldwide distribution; glaciation and ice ages; glacier dynamics; glacier surface and subsurface characteristics; geomorphic processes and landscape formation; hydrology and sedimentary systems; permafrost degradation; hazards caused by cryospheric changes; and trends of glacier retreat on the global scale along with the impact of climate change. This book can serve as a source of reference at the undergraduate and graduate level and help to better understand snow, ice and glaciers. It will also be an indispensable tool containing specialized literature for geologists, geographers, climatologists, hydrologists, and water resources engineers; as well as for those who are engaged in the practice of agricultural and civil engineering, earth sciences, environmental sciences and engineering, ecosystem management, and other relevant subjects.

This book exposes practitioners and students to the theory and application of river and lake ice processes to gain a better understanding of these processes for modelling and forecasting. It focuses on the following processes of the surface water ice: freeze-up, ice cover thickening, ice cover breakup and ice jamming. The reader will receive a fundamental understanding of the physical processes of each component and how they are applied in monitoring and modelling ice covers during the winter season and forecasting ice floods. Exercises accompany each component to reinforce the theoretical principles learned. These exercises will also expose the reader to different tools to process data, such a space-borne remote sensing imagery for ice cover classification. A thread supporting numerical modelling of river ice and lake ice processes runs through the book.

This heavily illustrated book contains descriptions and geologic interpretations of photographs (mostly aerial) illustrating the power and magnitude of repeated Ice Age flooding in the Pacific Northwest, as recently as 14,000 years ago. The scale of Ice Age floods was so huge that today it is often difficult to see and appreciate the power and magnitude of such megafloods from ground level. However, from the air, landforms created by the floods often come into clear focus. Aerial images, obtained via unmanned aerial vehicle (drone) as well as fixed-wing airplane, add a new perspective on evidence gathered by dozens of scientists since 1923.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1877.