Theoretical Glaciology

Book excerpt: The purpose and scope of this book on theoretical glaciology is outlined in the Introduction. Its aim is to study the theoretical aspects of'ice mechanics' and the 'dynamics of ice masses in a geophysical environment. For the mature reader, the book can serve as an introduction to glaciology. How ever, this is not what I would regard as advisible. Glaciology is an inter disciplinary science in which many special scientific disciplines play their part, from descriptive geography to fairly abstract mathematics. Advance ment will evolve from a merger of two or more branches of scientific specialization. In the last 20 years, several researchers in different fields of glaciology have written books emphasizing the aspects of their specialities and I have listed some which are known to me at the end of the Introduction. When glancing through these books, one recognizes that the mathematical aspects of glaciology are generally glossed over and, to date, there seems to be nothing available which concentrates on these. Therefore, I have written this book in an effort to close the gap and no apologies are offered for the mathematical emphasis. Rather, I believe that this neglect has, to a certain extent, aggra vated progress in the modelling of glaciology problems.