Geocryology

This book, originally published in 1980, provides a comprehensive overview of frost-action and mass-wasting processes and their effects, present and past. As warming of permafrost is becoming an increasingly important component of global climate change research, this text is also of increasing relevance. Geocryology is included in the title to emphasize the pervasive influence of ice and its phase changes in these processes. This book is neither a formal text nor a reference manual but something of both and a guide to the enormous literature. The text is illustrated with over 200 photographs and diagrams. The following topics are covered: Environmental factors, frozen ground, general frost-action processes, some periglacial forms, mass-wasting processes and forms, nivation, slopewash, fluvial action, lacrustine and marine action, wind action, thermokarst, environmental overview and environmental reconstructions. L. Washburn was the first executive director of the Arctic Institute of North America. He dedicated his life to fieldwork and the intensive study of the Arctic and Polar Regions in general, focusing on glacial and periglacial environments and Quaternary history of the earth. Dr. Washburn was Professor Emeritus in the department of Geological Sciences and the Quaternary Research Center at the University of Washington, and former Director of its Quaternary Research Center. He was deeply involved in the establishment of the journal Arctic and was founder and former Editor of Quaternary Research.