The Ice Age E-Book

Jurgen Ehlers

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 963

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

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.

Leseprobe

The Ice Age

Jürgen EhlersWitzeeze, GermanyPhilip D. HughesReader in Physical Geography, School of Environment,Education & Development, The University of Manchester, Manchester, United KingdomPhilip L. GibbardDepartment of Geography, University of Cambridge,Cambridge, United Kingdom

This edition first published 2016 @ 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Translation from German language edition: Das Eiszeitalter by Jürgen Ehlers. Copyright @ Springer Spektrum | Springer-Verlag GmbH 2011 (formerly Spektrum Akademischer Verlag). Springer Spektrum | Springer-Verlag GmbH is a part of Springer Science+Business Media. All Rights Reserved.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Ehlers, Jürgen, 1948-   [Eiszeitalter. English]   The Ice Age / Jürgen Ehlers, Philip Hughes. and Philip Gibbard.    pages cm   Translated from German: Das Eiszeitalter / by Jürgen Ehlers (Springer-Verlag, GmbH, 2011).  Includes bibliographical references and index.   ISBN 978-1-118-50781-0 (cloth) ‒ ISBN 978-1-118-50780-3 (pbk.) 1. Glacial epoch. 2. Climatic changes. 3. Glaciology. 4. Glacial landforms. 5. Eolian processes. 6. Ice sheets. I. Hughes, Philip D. II. Gibbard, Philip L. (Philip Leonard), 1949- III. Title.   QE697.E4413 2015   551.7'92‒Cdc23

2015015483

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books.

Cover image: Briksdalsbreen Glacier in Jostedalsbreen, Norway @ Getty Images

Contents

About the Authors

Preface

Acknowledgements

About the Companion Website

Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 In the Beginning was the Great Flood

1.2 The Ice Ages of the Earth

1.3 Causes of an Ice Age

Chapter 2 The Course of the Ice Age

2.1 When did the Quaternary Period Begin?

2.2 What’s in Stratigraphy?

2.3 Traces in the Deep Sea

2.4 Systematics of the Ice Age

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

2.6 Northern Germany and Adjacent Areas

2.7 The British Pleistocene Succession

2.8 Quaternary History of North America

2.9 The Course of the Ice Ages: A Global View

Chapter 3 Ice and Water

3.1 The Origin of Glaciers

3.2 Recent Glaciers: Small and Large

3.3 Dynamics of Ice Sheets

3.4 Meltwater

Chapter 4 Till and Moraines: The Traces of Glaciers

4.1 Till

4.2 Moraines

Chapter 5 Meltwater: From Moulins to the Urstromtal

5.1 Fjords, Channels and Eskers

5.2 Outwash Plains and Gravel Terraces

5.3 Ice-dammed Lakes

5.4 Kames: Deposits at the Ice Margin

5.5 Urstromtäler

Chapter 6 Maps: Where Are We?

6.1 Digital Maps

6.2 Satellite Images: Basic Data for Ice-Age Research

6.3 Projections and Ellipsoids

Chapter 7 Extent of the Glaciers

7.1 Exploring the Arctic by Airship

7.2 Glaciers in the Barents Sea

7.3 Isostasy and Eustasy

7.4 Ice in Siberia?

7.5 Asia: The Mystery of Tibet

7.6 South America: Volcanoes and Glaciers

7.7 Mediterranean Glaciations

7.8 Were Africa, Australia and Oceania Glaciated?

7.9 Antarctica: Eternal Ice?

Chapter 8 Ice in the Ground: The Periglacial Areas

8.1 Definition and Distribution

8.2 Extent of Frozen Ground during the Pleistocene

8.3 Frost Weathering

8.4 Cryoplanation

8.5 Rock Glaciers: Glaciers (Almost) Without Ice

8.6 Involutions

8.7 Solifluction

8.8 Periglacial Soil Stripes

8.9 Frost Cracks and Ice Wedges

8.10 Pingos, Palsas and other Frost Phenomena

Chapter 9 Hippos in the Thames: The Warm Stages

9.1 Tar Pits of Evidence

9.2 Development of Fauna

9.3 Development of Vegetation

9.4 Weathering and Soil Formation

9.5 Water in the Desert: The Shifting of Climate Zones

9.6 Changes in the Rainforest

Chapter 10 The Course of Deglaciation

10.1 Contribution to Landforms

10.2 Ice Decay

10.3 The Origin of Kettle Holes

10.4 Pressure Release

10.5 A Sudden Transition?

10.6 The Little Ice Age

Chapter 11 Wind, Sand and Stones: Aeolian Processes

11.1 Dunes

11.2 Aeolian Sand

11.3 Loess

Chapter 12 What Happened to the Rivers?

12.1 River Processes and Landforms

12.2 Dry Valleys

12.3 The Rhine: Influences of Alpine and Nordic Ice

12.4 The Elbe: Once Flowed to the Baltic Sea

12.5 The Thames: Influence of British Ice

Chapter 13 North and Baltic Seas during the Ice Age

13.1 Development of the North Sea

13.2 Development of the Baltic Sea

Chapter 14 Climate Models and Reconstructions

14.1 Ice Cores

14.2 The Marine Circulation

14.3 Modelling the Last Ice Sheets

14.4 Modelling Glaciers and Climate

Chapter 15 Human Interference

15.1 Out of Africa: Humans Spread Out

15.2 Neanderthals and

Homo sapiens

15.3 The Middle Stone Age

15.4 The Neolithic Period: The Beginning of Agriculture

15.5 Bronze and Iron

15.6 The Romans

15.7 Middle Ages

15.8 Recent Land Grab

15.9 Drying Lakes, Melting Glaciers and other Problems

15.10 The Anthropocene: Defining the Human Age?

References

Index

EULA

List of Tables

Chapter 2

TABLE 2.1

TABLE 2.2

Chapter 3

TABLE 3.1

TABLE 3.2

Chapter 4

TABLE 4.1

TABLE 4.2

Chapter 9

TABLE 9.1

Chapter 10

TABLE 10.1

TABLE 10.2

Chapter 11

TABLE 11.1

Chapter 15

TABLE 15.1