Description
1 Introduction: In the beginning was the Flood / Precambrian, Ordovician, Permo-Carboniferous – the Ice Ages of the Earth’s History / Box: Ice Age in the Desert – Glacial Traces in Libya. 2 The course of the ice age: Gnz, Mindel, Riss, Wrm – is the division still valid? / Milankovich and the consequences / Traces in the deep sea / The climate curve / The sequence of strata on the mainland has many gaps / When did the Quaternary begin? 3 Ice and water: Today’s glaciers – from cirque glaciers to inland ice / Box: Deformable bedrock, impact glaciation? / Origin of glaciers / How does a glacier move? / Meltwater 4 Ground moraines and terminal moraines – the traces of glaciers: The ground moraine – a colorful mixture? / Long-distance transport – short-distance transport / Deposition of moraine material / Many investigation possibilities – but how independent are the results? / The dynamics of the ice sheets 5 From the glacial mill to the glacial valley: discharge behavior of today’s glacial rivers / Traces of Pleistocene meltwater activity / Fjords, gullies, osses / Outwash plains and gravel terraces / Glacial valleys 6 Maps – where are we?: Maps and satellite images – basic data for ice age research / Projections and ellipsoids – the devil is in the details 7 How far did the glaciers reach?: Europe – how far did the ice reach? / Barents Sea – the discovery of an ice sheet / Asia – the riddle of Tibet / North America – the ice ages are getting older / South America – volcanoes and glaciers / Africa, Australia, Oceania – where were there glaciers? And when? / Antarctica – eternal ice? / Attempt of an overview 8 Ice in the soil – the formation of periglacial areas: Today’s permafrost / Periglacial formations / Weathering and leveling / Block glaciers – glaciers (almost) without ice / Strangulation and ground flow / Frost crevasses and ice wedges / Pingos, palsas and other frost bumps. 9 Hippos on the Thames – the history of warm periods: Vegetation development / Fauna evolution / Weathering and soil formation. 10 Process of deglaciation: ice disintegration / After the ice, the deluge – Lake Missoula and other ice reservoirs / The formation of sinks / Glacial scars and other traces of the last ice movement 11 Wind, sand and stones – the aeolian processes: Dunes, drifting sand, loess / Water in the desert – the shifting of climatic zones / Changes in the rainforest / Traces of the periglacial climate. 12 What happened to the rivers?: Terraces, dry valleys, deltas – fluvial processes / The Rhine – influenced by Alpine and Nordic ice / The Elbe flowed to the Baltic Sea / The Siberian rivers and the largest lake on Earth. 13 North Sea and Baltic Sea – the history of marginal seas: The development of the North Sea / The formation of the North Sea / The formation of the coastal barrier with the islands / From ice reservoir to marginal sea – the development of the Baltic Sea 14 Man intervenes: Human dispersal / Neanderthals / Postglacial development. 15 Climate reconstructions and models: Glaciation models / Models of oceanography / Climate models 16 Literature; Index
