Progress in glacial geology during the last fifty years

Abstract

AbstractThe principal objectives of glacial geology over the last 50 years have been to establish and explain the history of ice, and in particular glaciation, on Earth and to understand the origin of the erosional and depositional products of ice. One of its major successes has been to establish the tempo and magnitude of change in the global glacier mass during the late Cenozoic ice age, and to demonstrate Earth orbital forcing of these changes. On the larger time-scale of the whole geological record, there has been steady elucidation of the frequency of ice ages since the first evidence of glaciation in rocks 2700 Ma old.There has also been considerable progress in identifying the processes of glacial erosion and deposition and systematizing their products. It is now important that glacial geologists and glaciologists attempt to establish ways in which glacier behaviour is related to sedimentary processes, and via the geological product of those processes to relate the dynamics of glaciers in the past to processes in the lithosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere.