Quaternary and Glacial GeologyQuaternary, the youngest part of Earth history, is characterized by extreme climate variations. Forming the uppermost layer, Quaternary deposits are the ground on which most constructions are built. They contain a large proportion of the groundwater and of the aggregate resources and, at the same time, they form the substrate on which our modern soils have developed. Many environmental issues, such as groundwater protection and soil contamination, involve problems of Quaternary geology, although glacial sediments and the climate-controlled Quaternary stratigraphy differ fundamentally from the deposits of other ages. Quaternary and glacial geology combines not only the principles of quaternary geology but is also an introduction to the methods of investigation and an overview of Quaternary stratigraphy for geoscientists and archaeologists. |
Contents
Glacier Dynamics | 11 |
5 | 23 |
Glacigenic Deposits and Landforms | 55 |
Copyright | |
23 other sections not shown
Common terms and phrases
Alpine Alps Baltic Ice Lake Baltic Sea basin borehole Brørup central channels characterised clasts clay climatic Cold Stage Complex correlated Cromerian dating Deckenschotter Denmark deposits drainage drumlins Early Pleistocene Early Weichselian east Eemian Eemian Interglacial Ehlers Elsterian end moraines Europe fauna FIGURE fluvial foraminifera formation formed Gibbard glacier glacigenic gravel Holocene Holsteinian ice advance ice margin ice-marginal indicate Interstadial investigations lacustrine Lake landforms Late Weichselian Late Wisconsinan Laurentide Ice Sheet layers loess lower major Mangerud maximum meltwater Menke Middle Mindel Netherlands North America North Germany North Sea northern occurred Older Saalian oxygen-isotope palaeosols Penck periglacial period permafrost phase Pinus pollen pollen zones Quaternary radiocarbon reconstructed region Rhine Riss River rocks Saalian sand sandur Schleswig-Holstein Schlüchter sea level sedimentary sediments sequence silt southern stratigraphy subdivision subglacial Substage temperature terraces thick Tiglian upper valley varve vegetational Wacken Warm Stage Würmian Younger Dryas zone