The study of ice composition represents an effective tool in our understanding of the dynamics of glaciers, ice sheets and ice shelves. The authors of this work relate the distribution of isotopes and impurities in ice masses to ice flow, to the key zone close to the ice-substratum interface and to the mechanisms effective in the contact zone between glacier and ocean. Other material in this book is concerned with how global changes may be induced by a climatic warming due to anthropogenic activities. This monograph on glaciology, geophysics and geomorphology is intended for researchers,...

Starting with the description of meteorological variables in forest canopies and its parameter variations, a numerical three-dimentional model is developed. Its applicability is demonstrated, first, by wind sheltering effects of hedges and, second, by the effects of deforestation on local climate in complex terrain. Scientists in ecology, agricultural botany and meteorology, but also urban and regional lanners will profit from this study finding the most effective solution for their specific problems.

As very few studies on geomorphological aspects of sandstones exist, this book demonstrates the significance of landforming processes from geological, geochemical and dynamic points of view. The worldwide examples include classic areas of sandstone research such as the Colorado Plateau, Saxony, France and England, but also emphasize the sandstone lands of the southern hemisphere. The authors give evidence for climatic influences on sandstone landforms, taking into account geochemical weathering processes and detailed comparative studies, and a new classification based on structural and...

Soil and water pollution have a serious impact on the environment, and soil scientists and hydrologists need fundamental help for the estimation of the consequences. The experiments described in this volume deal with the quantification of the morphology of interaggregate voids and of the flow through such voids as well as around impermeable inclusions. The diagrams given in the appendix can be used as references for such measurements. This work is put into the context of the international literature on the subject. An index and a glossary complete the volume. The subject of this work is of...

The writer has been occupied with karst problems for 50 years and first visited China in 1977 as leader of a Royal Society delegation of British geomorphologists - the first delegation from the UK to visit China since the inauguration of the new China and at the end of the Cultural Revolution (Sweeting 1978). It was clear from that visit that a study of the Chinese karst would help our understanding of the problems of karst development and that many of the geomorphological difficulties which at times had stultified karst thinking in Europe, might gain from the Chinese approach and ideas....

Rockglaciers are the visible expression of the creep of mountain permafrost. They are indicative of special geo-ecologic and geomorphic conditions regarding thermal situation, talus production, hydrology, and hazards in high mountain environments of all major mountain systems on earth. As relict features, they are of great paleoclimatic value. This book presents a systematic treatment of this landform in its environmental context.

Discussions of "systems" and the "systems approach" tend to fall into one of two categories: the panegyrical and the disparaging. Scholars who praise the systems approach do so in the belief that it is a powerful and precise method of study. Scholars who try to shoot it down fail to see any advantage in it; indeed, many deem it periIicious. Van Dyne (1980, p. 889) records a facetious comment he once heard, the gist of which ran: "In instances where there are from one to two variables in a study you have a science, where there are from four to seven variables you have an art, and where there...

The distribution, deposition, composition and texture of loess in China is studied. Based on on-the-spot investigations, Loess and the Environment supplies information on: the loess-paleosol time sequence, loess fabric, and geological events derived from studying biological relics. Proceeding from the loess environmental system, the climatic fluctuation sequence of different scales has been reconstructed, and the whole process of eolian loess accumulation and its relationship with modern silt dust, water and soil conservation, engineering geology, agricultural soil as well as local...

Karst is characterized particularly by special landforms and sub surface drainage. The various actions of water result in numerous variations of surface and sub-surface karst forms. They also bring about distinctive geologic-morphologic forms, and more striking ly, specific flora and fauna. The scientific discipline of hydrology, although a long-established science, cannot easily be applied to karst regions with their very complex drainage system. A special approach is therefore necessary to understand and predict water circulation in these areas. This is the viewpoint we must adopt if...

Karst Systems deal with the question of how the subsurface drainage system, typical of Karst areas develops from its initial state to maturity. Equal attention is given to physical, chemical and geological conditions which determine karstification. The reader will find discussions of mass transport, chemical kinetics, hydrodynamics of fluxes, and the role of dissolution and precipitation of Calcite as they occur in experiments and natural environments. It offers a wealth of information on a complex natural system to hydrologists, hydrochemists, geologists and geographers.