Considering that glaciers and ice sheets cover about 10% of the Earth's land surface in a world where human civilization is increasingly impacted by the effects of changing glacial activity, Colour Atlas of Glacial Phenomena presents itself as an indispensable guide for students, professionals, and researchers who want to be better informed while studying and tracking the future influences of glaciers and ice sheets on the global environment. While stressing both the beauty and utility of glaciers, the authors cover critical features of glaciers and their landforms and provide useful explanations of the key concepts in glaciology and glacial geology. The authors expand to demonstrate how our lives are influenced by the Cryosphere, a key component of the Earth system and how this heightens the vulnerability of glaciers and ice sheets to deterioration. This illustrated book also helpfully maps out regions of mountain glaciers and ice caps around the world for a practical reference and discusses the products of glacial erosion and deposition integral to understanding rising global sea levels.
Michael J. Hambrey is emeritus professor of glaciology and former director of the Centre for Glaciology in the Department of Geography & Earth Sciences, at Aberystwyth University, Wales, UK. He was also founding director of the Climate Change Consortium of Wales. His research interest includes glacial geology and structural glaciology. He has published more than 200 scientific papers and several books, including a university-level textbook Glacial Environments (1994), as well as the popular books Glaciers (2nd edn, 2004) and Gletscher der Welt (2013) with Jürg Alean, and Islands of the Arctic (2002) with Julian Dowdeswell. Mike has undertaken glaciological fieldwork in Norway, New Zealand, the Swiss Alps, the Andes, the Himalaya, the Canadian Arctic, Yukon, Alaska, Greenland, Svalbard and Antarctica. For his work in the polar regions, he has been awarded the 'Polar Medal' twice by Her Majesty the Queen (1989 and 2012). He has served on a number of UK national and international committees dealing with glacial and polar issues.
Jürg Alean was formerly a teacher of geography at the Kantonsschule Zürcher Unterland in Bülach, Switzerland. He has undertaken extensive fieldwork in the Swiss Alps, the Canadian Arctic, Alaska and South America. His research has led to various scientific papers, in particular concerning dangerous glaciers and ice avalanches. He has also published many popular scientific articles and several books, for example, Gletscher der Alpen (2010) and Gletscher der Welt (2013). He is member of a team of volunteers maintaining 'SwissEduc.ch', a Web platform dedicated to providing teaching materials mainly for secondary education, and also hosting 'Glaciers-online.net', where both authors present a wide range of their photographic work on and around glaciers all over the world. Mike and Jürg's book Glaciers (1st edn) earned the Earth Science Publishers (USA) Outstanding Publication Award in 1995.
