Enhanced by many photographic illustrations of extraordinary quality, this textbook will provide students with a complete introduction to the scientific study of environments dominated by snow and ice. Glacial environments are scenically and scientifically among the most exciting on Earth, and at the same time they are among the most complex. Apart from the processes associated directly with moving ice, other processes -- fluvial, acolian, lacustrine, and marine -- frequently interact with ice. Glacial environments therefore exhibit a wide variety of landforms and sediment associations.

Today, some ten per cent of the land surface of the Earth is covered by ice, whereas in the Pleistocene the figure exceeded thirty per cent. In earlier geological history, the Earth underwent glaciations of continent-wide extent on several occasions, some of them even more intense than those of the Pleistocene. By examining the processes operating within glacial settings and their resulting products, Glacial Environments provides the foundation for investigation of both the ancient and the modern record.

Emphasizing the range of erosional and depositional landforms, drawing on the older geological record, according due attention to the exciting recent developments in research on the marine environment, incorporating illustrations from both contemporary and ancient environments and covering all relevant parts of the world, this attractive book will find a wide readership among students of geography, geology and environmental science.

Michael J. Hambrey's profile page

Michael Hambrey is a professor of Quaternary Geology at Liverpool John Moores University.

Photographs are numerous and outstanding; the line drawings are well executed. Hambrey is a distinguished glaciologist with unusually widespread field experience. His writing style is outstanding, and he has been meticulous in defining the often confusing array of terms and concepts in this research field. Excellent glossary; useful bibliography and index.

Choice

... an extremely ordered, comprehensive summary of the current understanding of glacial sedimentology ... the book is able to provide an understanding of modern glacial geology, which the reader can appreciate and comprehend through dozens of illustrations and photographs, many of which have been taken from Hambrey's own extensive field work, and often from well-known locations within the British Isles ... a fine review of contemporary knowledge in glacial geology and, through its descriptive approach, may prove to be an essential and popular undergraduate text.

Polar Record, January 1995