The Ice Age / Edition 1

by Jürgen Ehlers, Philip Hughes, Philip L. Gibbard

Overview

This book provides a new look at the climatic history of the last 2.6 million years during the ice age, a time of extreme climatic fluctuations that have not yet ended. This period also coincides with important phases of human development from Neanderthals to modern humans, both of whom existed side by side during the last cold stage of the ice age. The ice age has seen dramatic expansions of glaciers and ice sheets, although this has been interspersed with relatively short warmer intervals like the one we live in today. The book focuses on the changing state of these glaciers and the effects of associated climate changes on a wide variety of environments (including mountains, rivers, deserts, oceans and seas) and also plants and animals. For example, at times the Sahara was green and colonized by humans, and Lake Chad covered 350,000 km2 – larger than the United Kingdom. What happened during the ice age can only be reconstructed from the traces that are left in the ground. The work of the geoscientist is similar to that of a detective who has to reconstruct the sequence of events from circumstantial evidence. The book draws on the specialisms and experience of the authors who are experts on the glacial history of the Earth.

Readership: Undergraduate and postgraduate students studying the Quaternary,  researchers, and anyone interested in climate change, environmental change and geology. The book provides a rich collection of illustrations and photographs to help the readers at all levels visualise the dramatic consequences of glacier expansions during the Ice Age.  

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781118507803
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	01/19/2016
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	560
Product dimensions:	8.40(w) x 10.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Jürgen Ehlers studied Geography at the University of Hamburg. In 1978 he did his PhD with a study in glacial geomorphology. Since then Ehlers worked at the Geological Survey of Hamburg, where he was in charge of the geological mapping until his retirement in 2013. He organised the INQUA project Extent and Chronology of Quaternary Glaciations with both Phil Gibbard and Phil Hughes and this global compilation was published in 2011.
 
Philip Hughes is Reader in Physical Geography at The University of Manchester, UK. He studied for his first degree reading geography at the University of Exeter graduating in 1999. This was followed by a Masters in Quaternary Science, then a PhD in Geography, both at the University of Cambridge (Darwin College). He is Subject Editor in Geomorphology and Quaternary Geology for the Journal of the Geological Society.
 
Philip Gibbard is Professor of Quaternary Palaeoenvironments at the University of Cambridge, UK, and a Dosent in the University of Helsinki, Finland. He is past-chair of the International Commission on Stratigraphy's Quaternary Subcommission. He is currently President, and was formally Secretary and member, of the Stratigraphy and Geochronology Commission of INQUA, and is a member of the INQUA Subcommission of European Quaternary Stratigraphy and the Geological Society of London's Stratigraphy Commission. His research is focused on Quaternary and late Tertiary terrestrial and shallow marine sedimentation, stratigraphy and palaeoenvironmental evolution throughout Europe, but he has also worked in the Arctic, North America, India and South-East Asia.

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Table of Contents

About the Authors vii

Preface ix

Acknowledgements xi

About the companion website xiii

1. Introduction 3

1.1 In the Beginning was the Great Flood 4

1.2 The Ice Ages of the Earth 14

1.3 Causes of an Ice Age 18

2. The Course of the Ice Age 27

2.1 When did the Quaternary Period Begin? 27

2.2 What’s in Stratigraphy? 33

2.3 Traces in the Deep Sea 35

2.4 Systematics of the Ice Age 43

2.5 Günz, Mindel, Riss and Würm: Do They Still Apply? 46

2.6 Northern Germany and Adjacent Areas 58

2.7 The British Pleistocene Succession 76

2.8 Quaternary History of North America 86

2.9 The Course of the Ice Ages: A Global View 100

3. Ice and Water 107

3.1 The Origin of Glaciers 107

3.2 Recent Glaciers: Small and Large 113

3.3 Dynamics of Ice Sheets 121

3.4 Meltwater 129

4. Till and Moraines: The Traces of Glaciers 137

4.1 Till 137

4.2 Moraines 172

5. Meltwater: From Moulins to the Urstromtal 191

5.1 Fjords, Channels and Eskers 191

5.2 Outwash Plains and Gravel Terraces 202

5.3 Ice-dammed Lakes 207

5.4 Kames: Deposits at the Ice Margin 213

5.5 Urstromtäler 220

6. Maps: Where Are We? 227

6.1 Digital Maps 229

6.2 Satellite Images: Basic Data for Ice-Age Research 236

6.3 Projections and Ellipsoids 240

7. Extent of the Glaciers 243

7.1 Exploring the Arctic by Airship 243

7.2 Glaciers in the Barents Sea 244

7.3 Isostasy and Eustasy 246

7.4 Ice in Siberia? 252

7.5 Asia: The Mystery of Tibet 258

7.6 South America: Volcanoes and Glaciers 265

7.7 Mediterranean Glaciations 269

7.8 Were Africa, Australia and Oceania Glaciated? 272

7.9 Antarctica: Eternal Ice? 273

8. Ice in the Ground: The Periglacial Areas 277

8.1 Definition and Distribution 277

8.2 Extent of Frozen Ground during the Pleistocene 281

8.3 Frost Weathering 283

8.4 Cryoplanation 286

8.5 Rock Glaciers: Glaciers (Almost) Without Ice 288

8.6 Involutions 291

8.7 Solifluction 294

8.8 Periglacial Soil Stripes 296

8.9 Frost Cracks and Ice Wedges 297

8.10 Pingos, Palsas and other Frost Phenomena 301

9. Hippos in the Thames: The Warm Stages 311

9.1 Tar Pits of Evidence 311

9.2 Development of Fauna 312

9.3 Development of Vegetation 316

9.4 Weathering and Soil Formation 324

9.5 Water in the Desert: The Shifting of Climate Zones 336

9.6 Changes in the Rainforest 345

10. The Course of Deglaciation 349

10.1 Contribution to Landforms 349

10.2 Ice Decay 350

10.3 The Origin of Kettle Holes 354

10.4 Pressure Release 357

10.5 A Sudden Transition? 359

10.6 The Little Ice Age 363

11. Wind, Sand and Stones: Aeolian Processes 369

11.1 Dunes 369

11.2 Aeolian Sand 378

11.3 Loess 378

12. What Happened to the Rivers? 383

12.1 River Processes and Landforms 383

12.2 Dry Valleys 386

12.3 The Rhine: Influences of Alpine and Nordic Ice 387

12.4 The Elbe: Once Flowed to the Baltic Sea 396

12.5 The Thames: Influence of British Ice 400

13. North and Baltic Seas during the Ice Age 405

13.1 Development of the North Sea 406

13.2 Development of the Baltic Sea 414

14. Climate Models and Reconstructions 427

14.1 Ice Cores 427

14.2 The Marine Circulation 429

14.3 Modelling the Last Ice Sheets 431

14.4 Modelling Glaciers and Climate 442

15. Human Interference 447

15.1 Out of Africa: Humans Spread Out 448

15.2 Neanderthals and Homo sapiens 452

15.3 The Middle Stone Age 452

15.4 The Neolithic Period: The Beginning of Agriculture 453

15.5 Bronze and Iron 454

15.6 The Romans 455

15.7 Middle Ages 457

15.8 Recent Land Grab 457

15.9 Drying Lakes, Melting Glaciers and other Problems 459

15.10 The Anthropocene: Defining the Human Age? 465

References 469

Index 541

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Quaternary research is in teaching and research the main focus of the Chair of Geomorphology in Bayreuth. Students have often asked me if I could recommend a book that summarizes this very complex field. The very comprehensive work "The Pleisene" by T. Nilsson is outdated and no longer up to date. Finally, there is now again a lavish and modernly designed book in German, which can be highly recommended to students as well as other geoscientists and interested laymen. The work is very up to date, equipped with numerous color pictures and illustrations, reads well and, above all, reveals the author's anchoring on the international research front. Of course, some Quaternary researchers may wish for more details from special areas of Quaternary research at one point or another. But then the work, which is already extensive in content and pages, would become too voluminous to be useful as an introduction for a broad audience. The work fills a large gap in the scientific book market. It is to be hoped that the book will be widely distributed and that the documented modern state of knowledge can be further maintained in subsequent years through updated new editions. Prof. Dr. Ludwig Zöller, University of Bayreuth

Long overdue: A German-language work on the Ice Age, written in a clear, understandable and entertaining way and richly illustrated, taking into account the most important literature of the last 200 years. A treasure trove of data for students and experts. Prof. Dr. Klaus Heine, University of Regensburg

A very good book, which shines besides the content qualities also by the excellent illustrations, maps and also striking photos. It is also very good that also non-European glaciation areas are presented and analyzed exemplarily. The effect and shaping of the ice is vividly and memorably presented: this is especially true for the glacial morphological small and micro forms. Through the use of satellite images, the glacially shaped landscapes are impressively presented and explained. Prof. Dr. Hans-Joachim Fuchs, University of Mainz

Editorial Reviews

"I can thoroughly recommend this book, which clearly meets the back-cover claim to be ideal for under- and post-graduates studying the Quaternary, and for researchers in climate and environmental change as well as geology." (Proceedings of the Open University Geological Society Apr-2017)

From the Publisher