With the increasing awareness of environmental problems, there is a growing desire for a detailed understanding of superficial deposits in general, and glacial deposits in particular. This is because these sediments have a profound influence on groundwater protection, waste management and nature conservation. They are also of vital importance to civil engineering, because they provide the foundation for, as well as the materials extracted to build our roads and buildings. The greater part of the British Isles was glaciated, at least once, during the Quaternary Era. In the regions subjected to glaciation, glacial deposits underlie much of the present land surface. Although there have been many recent publications on various Quaternary geological topics, the present volume is the first dedicated to a detailed assessment of the glacial deposits of Britain and Ireland. After introductory chapters presenting the glacial history, the sedimentary sequences in 24 critical regions are discussed. These regions include all of Ireland, the glaciated area of Great Britain, and the adjoining offshore region of the North Sea. The controversial evolution of the Irish Sea Basin during the Last Glaciation is discussed from various viewpoints. A collection of 'critical topics' presented in the later part of the book range from the classification of glacigenic landforms and deposits to the results of geophysical, geotechnical and geochemical analyses. The book includes 368 figures, 40 tables and 51 colour photographs, a detailed index and a list of over 1000 references. With 45 contributions by 48 scientists, this volume represents a truly contemporary view of this field of research. Together with its companion volume the Glacial deposits in North-West Europe, this book provides an excellent textbook for the advanced student or the amateur, as well as an indispensible source- and guidebook for the professional scientist.

The Lower Thames Valley is a classic area for British Pleistocene studies. The valley contains a sequence of River Thames deposits representing approximately the past 300,000 years, including older, highly fragmented and eroded sediments derived from Thames tributaries and glaciation. The region includes some of the most important Palaeolithic archaeological sites in the country which, although extensively studied, have never previously been fitted into a regional context. The area also includes some of the most important fossiliferous localities in the country, several of which have been at the center of controversies regarding the sequence of events in the British Pleistocene. This regional investigation clarifies the problems by presenting the geological sequence in detail and establishing the relationship of these localities for the first time.