Ice-marginal and Periglacial Processes and Sediments

Book excerpt: Understanding the sediments deposited by glaciers or other cold-climate processes assumes enhanced significance in the context of current global warming and the predicted melt and retreat of glaciers and ice sheets. This volume analyses glacial, proglacial and periglacial settings. Papers include topics such as sedimentation at termini of tidewater glaciers, poorly understood high-mountain features, and slope and aeolian deposits that have been sourced in glacial and periglacial regions and subsequently transported and deposited by azonal processes. Difficulties encountered in inferring Pleistocene and pre-Pleistocene cold-climate conditions when the sedimentary record lacks specific diagnostic indicators are discussed. The main objective of this volume is to establish the validity and limitations of the evidence that is used to achieve reliable palaeogeographic and palaeoclimatic reconstructions. On the much longer geological timescale, an understanding of ice-marginal and periglacial environments may better prepare us for the unavoidable reversal towards cooler and perhaps even glacial times in the future.