BOREAS BOOK REVIEWS

b@ Boreas. Vol. 12. pp. 312-313. Oslo. 1983 1201

Glacial deposits in northwest Europe MAITI SAARNISTO

Ehlcrs. Jiirgcn (cd.) 19x3: Gkuciul Depposirs in Norrh-wesr Eu- rope. 470 pp. A . A. Balkcma. Rottcrdam. Price NLG 125.-.

Dr. Jiirgcn Ehlcrs from Hamburg is the editor of this volume in which forty-six authors from The Netherlands. Wcst Gcrmany. Denmark. Norway. and Sweden have contributed 53 chaptcrs on various aspccts of the glacial dcposits in thcir countries. Unfortunately, no articles dealing with thc eastern part of thc glaciated area arc included. Thc 'certain well-known difficul- tics' mentioned by the editor whcn cxplaining his decision for limiting the gcographical area which thc hook covers arc not acccptahlc to a Finnish reader. As work on glacial deposits has a long tradition in Finland and is still vigorous today, a paper from the Finnish sector of the Scandinavian icc shcct would surely have contributed towards a more comprchcnsivc picture of the topic.

I t is easier t o agrcc that thc size of the book is approaching the limit at which it is still rcadablc. I t now contains 470 pages. including a dctailcd index and a most uscful list of 700 rcfcr- cnccs. Thc 409 hlack and whitc illustrations and 95 colour photographs arc of very high quality. Thc cditor has to bc congratulated o n a remarkable achievement. Dcspitc thc great number of contributors. the hook forms a logical entity hccausc the articlcs from different countrics follow practically the same scheme. namely stratigraphy. morphology. and compositional propertics o f glacial dcposits. In addition, there arc several articles dcaling with spccial problcms or limitcd kcy arcas. In thc last-mentioned group perhaps a morc rigorous selection could have bccn employed. sincc many of the chaptcrs arc too short to givc anything hut a superficial summary of thc given phcnomcna. I personally would have been intcrcstcd in longcr contributions on tunnel valleys and periglacial phenomena I for cxamplc. although these subjects do not strictly belong to the theme of the hook.

Taking the contcnt of the hook as a wholc, glacial deposits as such are particularly emphasized while the stratigraphy pro- vidcs only a general framework for discussion. The propertics of till and glaciofluvial deposits in different countries arc dealt with competently and chapters on applied gcology arc includ- ed. c.g. till in road construction (H. G. Johansson) and pro- specting (Karin Eriksson) in Swcden. This is all very useful information. Sylvi tialdorscn dcscrihcs the gcnesis of thc Nor- wegian tills. and P. E. Niclscn and M. Houmark-Niclscn thc Danish tills. The editor himself has written on German tills with H.-J. Stcphan and on meltwater deposits with F. Grubc. The finc gravel and heavy mincral analyses from horcholc matcrial traditionally used in The Ncthcrlands arc described by J . G. Zandstra. and the use of indicator pebbles in Gcrmany by K.-D. Mcyer.

The depositional environment of the glacial sediments is rcflcctcd in thcir structural features; the cxccllcnt colour pho- tographs are especially useful in this respect. NorthGerman till types arc beautifully illustratcd by J. Ehlcrs and similarly the glaciofluvial and glaciolacustrinc sediments of The Ncthcrlands by G. H. J. Rucgg. to mention only two examples. The skill of

J. Lundqvist as a photographer is demonstrated in his articles on glacial morphology in Sweden. while J . Kriigcr illustrates the chapter on glacial morphology and deposits in Denmark with finc gcomorphological maps.

The regional descriptions on glacial deposits in Norway in- clude a contribution by R. Sercnscn from the Olsofjord area. where Late Wcichsclian and Holocene moraincs arc promi- nent. 0. F. Frcdriksen and Kari Garncs intcrprct the Wcichsc- lian till stratigraphy in thc mountain area of southern Norway. and J.-L. Sollid and A. J. Rcitc put forward the much dchatcd idea that the highest peaks in Ccntral Norway may have hccn ice-free during thc Wcichsclian maximum. In Swcden, Ch. Pcrsson writes about the Central Swedish end moraincs and A. Hillcfors on the Dosehacka and Ellcsbo drumlins. B. Strombcrg summarizes the Swedish varvc chronology and ex- plains the current progress in this field. It is hoped that in thc near future the chronology can he ticd to the present day. The complicatcd and controversial icestrcam history in SkSnc. southern Swcdcn. is described by E. Lagerlund. T . Vorren and his co-authors explain thc sedimentary cnvironmcnt of glacial deposits on the Norwegian shelf, and the article by K. Figgc deals with the German North Sea area whcrc scismic profiling has produced very uscful stratigraphical data.

The hook also contains articles on thc glacial stratigraphy of each counlry. These summaries give an interesting up-to-datc picture of the situation. Although there is no corrclating chap- ter, the editor, I am sure, has paid attcntion to the fact that there should be rcasonahlc agrccmcnt hctwccn the glacial history of neighbouring countries. One difficulty arises from a confusion in terminology. In North Gcrmany. for example. different terms arc used for the same Saalian deposits.

J. D. dc Jong and G. C. Maarlcvcld suggest that the oldest till in The Netherlands is of Elsterian age, whereas M. W. tcr Wee argues that the horehole information is still inconclusive. The deposits of the Pcclo formation. the type site for the Elsterian, arc glaciolacustrinc, glaciofluvial. and periglacial. The only unquestionable glaciation which reachcd The Ncthcr- lands is dated to thc Middle Saalian. In Gcrmany. as Ehlcrs points out, the till deposits of all known glaciations (Elsterian. Drenthc and Warthe substages of thc Saalian, and Wcichsc- lian) form a regular sequence, indicating that a glacial stage started with a north-south movcmcnt of the ice but in later stages cast-west flow dircctions prevailed. This is shown by indicator pebbles and fabric mcasurcmcnls. Onc cxplanation for this regular pattern is the eastward migration of the Scandi- navian ice divide.

Various aspect of the glacial stratigraphy of Wcst Germany arc touched upon in scparatc articles; for example thc thor- ough study from Schlcswig-Holstein by H.-J. Stcphan and others. In stratigraphical subdivisions thc palcosols arc of spe- cia1 intcrcst as demonstrated by P. Felix-Hcnningscn. S. Sjorring summarizes the situation in Denmark, whcrc rcpcatcd glaciations have taken place since the Elsterian. In this chapter information on the pollen stratigraphy of the intcrglacials and interstadials is also included (after S. T. Andcrscn). In Nor-

way, the oldest identified glacial deposits arc from pre-Eemian time, presumably Saalian, which is also the case in southern Sweden. as indicated in the concise summaries of J . Mangerud and J. Lundqvist. In these countries the main glacial sediment cover originates from Weichsclian time. whereas information of older stages is still very fragmentary.

More than 15 years have passed since the publication of The Quaternary I and I / (edited by K. Rankama), which arc to a certain extent comparable with the prescnt volume. This has been a period of a great many stratigraphical findings. as new sections and boreholc records have become available due to the extensive exploitation of Quaternary deposits. A lot of

work has also been done towards a better understanding of deposition in the glacial environment, and is now documented in this new volume. Only a very brief sampling of the contents of this fine book has been possible here. Glacial Deposirs in North-wesf Europe gives a highly professional picture of the current status and progress in the study of minerogenic Quater- nary deposits. I am sure it will serve as an invaluable textbook and handbook for many years to come.

Marri Saarnisto, Geological Survey of Finland, 02150 Espoo I S , Finland; 291h September. 1983.