Rivers Of Ice

A passionate eyewitness account of the mysteries and looming demise of glaciers—and what their fate means for our shared future The ice sheets and glaciers that cover one-tenth of Earth's land surface are in grave peril. High in the Alps, Andes, and Himalaya, once-indomitable glaciers are retreating, even dying. Meanwhile, in Antarctica, thinning glaciers may be unlocking vast quantities of methane stored for millions of years beneath the ice. In Ice Rivers, renowned glaciologist Jemma Wadham offers a searing personal account of glaciers and the rapidly unfolding crisis that they—and we—face. Taking readers on a personal journey from Europe and Asia to Antarctica and South America, Wadham introduces majestic glaciers around the globe as individuals—even friends—each with their own unique character and place in their community. She challenges their first appearance as silent, passive, and lifeless, and reveals that glaciers are, in fact, as alive as a forest or soil, teeming with microbial life and deeply connected to almost everything we know. They influence crucial systems on which people depend, from lucrative fisheries to fertile croplands, and represent some of the most sensitive and dynamic parts of our world. Their fate is inescapably entwined with our own, and unless we act to abate the greenhouse warming of our planet the potential consequences are almost unfathomable. A riveting blend of cutting-edge research and tales of encounters with polar bears and survival under the midnight sun, Ice Rivers is an unforgettable portrait of—and love letter to—our vanishing icy wildernesses.

Originally published: London: Allen Lane, an imprint of Penguin Books, 2021.

This book exposes practitioners and students to the theory and application of river and lake ice processes to gain a better understanding of these processes for modelling and forecasting. It focuses on the following processes of the surface water ice: freeze-up, ice cover thickening, ice cover breakup and ice jamming. The reader will receive a fundamental understanding of the physical processes of each component and how they are applied in monitoring and modelling ice covers during the winter season and forecasting ice floods. Exercises accompany each component to reinforce the theoretical principles learned. These exercises will also expose the reader to different tools to process data, such a space-borne remote sensing imagery for ice cover classification. A thread supporting numerical modelling of river ice and lake ice processes runs through the book.

On a certain summer morning, about the middle of the present century, a big bluff man, of seafaring aspect, found himself sauntering in a certain street near London Bridge. He was a man of above fifty, but looked under forty in consequence of the healthful vigour of his frame, the freshness of his saltwater face, and the blackness of his shaggy hair.Although his gait, pilot-cloth coat, and pocketed hands proclaimed him a sailor, there were one or two contradictory points about him. A huge beard and moustache savoured more of the diggings than the deep, and a brown wide-awake with a prodigiously broad brim suggested the backwoods.Pausing at the head of one of those narrow lanes which-running down between warehouses, filthy little rag and bone shops, and low poverty-stricken dwellings-appear to terminate their career, not unwillingly, in the Thames, the sailor gazed before him with nautical earnestness for a few seconds, then glanced at the corner house for a name; found no name; cast his eyes up to the strip of blue sky overhead, as if for inspiration; obtained none; planted his legs wide apart as if he had observed a squall coming, and expected the lane to lurch heavily-wrinkled his eyebrows, and pursed his lips.