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The purpose and scope of this book on theoretical glaciology is outlined in the Introduction. Its aim is to study the theoretical aspects of'ice mechanics' and the 'dynamics of ice masses in a geophysical environment. For the mature reader, the book can serve as an introduction to glaciology. How ever, this is not what I would regard as advisible. Glaciology is an inter disciplinary science in which many special scientific disciplines play their part, from descriptive geography to fairly abstract mathematics. Advance ment will evolve from a merger of two or more branches of scientific specialization. In the last 20 years, several researchers in different fields of glaciology have written books emphasizing the aspects of their specialities and I have listed some which are known to me at the end of the Introduction. When glancing through these books, one recognizes that the mathematical aspects of glaciology are generally glossed over and, to date, there seems to be nothing availablewhich concentrates on these. Therefore, I have written this book in an effort to close the gap and no apologies are offered for the mathematical emphasis. Rather, I believe that this neglect has, to a certain extent, aggra vated progress in the modelling of glaciology problems.
List of contents
I. Fundamental Physics and Materials Technology of Ice.- 1, General Concepts.- 2. A Brief Summary of Constitutive Relations for Ice.- II. The Deformation of an Ice Mass Under Its Own Weight.- 3. A Mathematical Ice-flow Model and its Application to Parallel-sided Ice Slabs.- 4. Thermo-mechanical Response of Nearly Parallel-sided Ice Slabs Sliding over their Bed.- 5, The Application of the Shallow-ice Approximation.- 6. The Response of a Glacier or an Ice Sheet to Seasonal and Climatic Changes.- 7. Three-dimensional and Local Flow Effects in Glaciers and Ice Sheets.- Appendix. Detailed Calculations Pertaining to Higher-order Stresses in the Shallow-ice Approximation.- Author Index.
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`...a remarkable book of high quality and of great importance to anybody who is interested in the mechanics of ice and glaciers. It has the advantage of being clearly written and it contains all the necessary background material.'
Pageoph, 123 (1985)
`...the book provides a very detailed mathematical treatment of natural ice flows, and will stand as a reference text for noth the practitioner seeking valid models for correlation and prediction, and the theoretician embarking on further developments.'
Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 150 (1985)
