Ice Sheets [Hardcover]

Terence J. Hughes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 8, 1998

The purpose of this book, in the author's words, is to make "a glaciological contribution toward understanding climate -- to show how ice sheets interact with the atmosphere, oceans, and solid earth as they advance and retreat during a glaciation cycle." The author reviews the dynamics of climatic change, describing the basic physical concepts and mechanisms in simple terms; then presents a detailed introduction to modeling the advance and retreat of ice sheets in response to and as contributing to climatic forcing. The modeling approach will focus on the physical basis of the model, making maximum use of glacial geology.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This is a somewhat technical book written for glaciologists that challenges a view that ice sheets have only a passive response to Quaternary climate changes. Instead, the author considers the proposition that Quaternary ice sheets interact with global climate. The book starts with a new paradigm for the ice age, discussing instability of ice sheets (especially Antarctica) and goes on to physics and dynamics of ice sheets followed by chapters on sheet, stream, and shelf flows. The last chapters present analyses of the last glaciation and the coming glaciation (using models and Milankovitch insolation cycles). Prior knowledge of calculus and glacial and fluid dynamics is assumed."--Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

About the Author

Terence J. Hughes, Professor, Department of Geological Sciences, University of Maine.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 360 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 1 edition (October 8, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195069641
• ISBN-13: 978-0195069648
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,768,750 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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