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Photo 2000
Photo 1928
Fig. 6.84 Vanishing glaciers; South Cascade valley glacier, Washington State, USA.
imbalance between supply from the gathering area
upstream and the geometry of the channel downstream.
In addition, the icy kinematic floodwave that quickly trav-
els through the system causes tectonic thickening, intense
crevassing, extreme local velocity gradients, abundant dis-
charges of meltwater, and the intense mixing of lateral and
medial moraines. As the surge dissipates and the glacier
resumes its sluggish phase once more, the advanced snout
(but note that surges do not always reach the snout)
decays back to equilibrium position. Distinctive surge
moraines, ridges of ice-rafted and sheared sediment, then
mark the previous maximum position of the glacier front.
Major historic shrinkage and retreat of many glaciers is
recorded worldwide (Figs 6.82-6.84).
Further reading
Oceanographic matters are described in H. V. Thurman's
Introductory Oceanography (McMillan, 1994) and
explained in the exceptionally clear S. Pond and
G. L. Pickards' Introductory Dynamical Oceanography
(Pergamon, 1983). For the basics of atmospheric dynam-
ics, R. McIlveen's Fundamentals of Weather and Climate
(Stanley Thornes, 1998) is very clearly laid out. We also
like E. Linacre and B. Greert's Climates and Weather
Explained (Routledge, 1997), partly because the Southern
hemisphere perspective adds twists for northerners and
also because of useful CD. Physical processes in terrestrial
systems are well-treated by M. J. Selby in Hillslope
Materials and Processes (Oxford, 1993), P.A. Allen in
Earth Surface Processes (Blackwell Science, 1997),
K. Hiscock in Hydrogeology (Blackwell Science, 2004),
P. J. Williams and M. W. Smith in The Frozen Earth
(Cambridge, 1991), W. S. B. Patterson in Physics of Glaciers
(Butterworth-Heinemann, 1994), and J. Menzies in (Ed.)
Modern Glacial Environments, Vol. 1
(Butterworth-
Heinemann, 1995).
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