European Glacial Landscapes

<i>European Glacial Landscapes: The Role of Glaciers in Shaping the Landscape of Europe During the Last Deglaciation</i> brings together relevant experts on the history of glaciers and their impact on the landscape of the main European regions. The European glaciers ended their maximum expansion of the Last Glacial Cycleapproximately 20,000 years ago, when ice-sheets covered all the Scandinavian countries, Finland, much of the British Isles, the shores of the Baltic Sea and Central-Europe until roughly the present Rhine River. The glaciers covered also large areas of the main European mountains, such as the Urals, the Carpathians, the Alps, the Balkans, the Pyrenees, etc. Glaciers were also present even in the southernmost mountains, sometimes forming remarkable ice caps with cirque glaciers on relatively low mountains bordering the Mediterranean Sea. Soon after the Last Glacial Maximum from around 20,000 years ago a rapid process of glacial retreat began throughout Europe, which was i