The Dynamics of Snow and Ice Masses

Abstract

On Earth today we enjoy a relatively comfortable climate, which is a fortunate consequence of the present extent of the global ice cover. Although more than two-thirds of the surface of Earth is covered by water, it is the water to ice conversion, and vice versa, that makes an important fraction of the globe habitable today. Hence, changes in the global scale dynamics of the ice cover capture scientific and public interest principally because of their role in global warming and ice-age events. It is in this sense that ice is the ultimate geomorphological fluid mechanic.