{"id":48326,"date":"2017-12-07T15:06:23","date_gmt":"2017-12-07T20:06:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=48326"},"modified":"2018-02-06T14:16:36","modified_gmt":"2018-02-06T19:16:36","slug":"book-about-glacial-past-sheds-light-on-the-planets-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2017\/12\/book-about-glacial-past-sheds-light-on-the-planets-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Book about glacial past sheds light on the planet\u2019s future"},"content":{"rendered":"

With an influx of natural disasters recently making headlines, the topics of climate change and global warming are as pressing as ever.<\/span><\/p>\n

Past glacial environments and the critical insight they provide into the planet\u2019s future are at the centre of John Menzies\u2019 latest book.<\/span><\/p>\n

The professor of Earth Sciences and Geography has completely revamped <\/span>Past Glacial Environments<\/span><\/i>, a book he initially released in 1996.<\/span><\/p>\n

While it shares the same name as the original edition, the latest publication has undergone a complete rewrite and has been updated to include a large collection of colourful photographs, diagrams and tables.<\/span><\/p>\n

Among its 858 pages are chapters on dating methods, paleosols, ice models, GIS imagery, stratigraphy, marine sediments and more.<\/span><\/p>\n

It includes contributions from geological experts from around the world, including Canada, the Netherlands, Iceland, France, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, the U.K, the U.S., Germany and Norway.<\/span><\/p>\n

The book aims to \u201cto cover the most relevant glacial sedimentary environments and techniques to provide the current generation of geoscience, sedimentology, environmental science, glaciology and ice modelling students with an up-to-date overview and prepare them in the best possible way for the study of past glacial environments.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Menzies hopes the book \u201chighlights the fundamental issue pertaining to glacial environments and how they reflect climate change and global warming.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the first indicators of global warming is sea level rise and glacier and ice sheet melting,\u201d he says. \u201cA huge symptom of climate change is fluctuating glacial conditions, as evidenced by Antarctic ice shelves breaking up and valley glaciers in the Rockies retreating. What happens underneath the ice is very relevant to these events \u2014 more so than many people understand.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

To help co-edit the two-year project, Menzies called upon past collaborator Jaap van der Meer, Professor Emeritus of Physical Geography at Queen Mary, University of London. <\/span><\/p>\n

The two met in Finland in the late 1980s. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe realized we were doing the exact same kind of research work and jumped at the chance to work together,\u201d Menzies says of their first encounter decades ago.<\/span><\/p>\n

Menzies\u2019 lifelong research centres on glacial geology and sedimentology, examining the sediments left behind by ice sheets and glaciers, with special focus on subglacial sediments and landforms.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAt least 99 per cent of Canada is covered by these subglacial sediments,\u201d Menzies says. \u201cMany aspects of life in Canada are affected by these sediments, whether it be agriculture, engineering projects or the storage of nuclear waste to a depth far enough underground to be left secure once the next \u2018Ice Age\u2019 returns.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Past Glacial Environments<\/span><\/i> \u2014 published by Elsevier, one of the world\u2019s major providers of scientific technical and medical information \u2014 was released Dec. 5 and is available on <\/span>Amazon<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With an influx of natural disasters recently making headlines, the topics of climate change and global warming are as pressing as ever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":48327,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,41,1,4,5],"tags":[885,150,6088,6090,6089],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48326"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48326"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48344,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48326\/revisions\/48344"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}