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Paraglacial

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Natural Hazards

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series ((EESS))

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Definition

Paraglacial. “Nonglacial processes that are directly influenced by glaciation” (Church and Ryder 1972, p. 3059).

Paraglaciation. (1) (v.) The geomorphological regime under which landscapes undergo modification by paraglacial processes. (2) (n.) The time period during which paraglacial processes operate in a given area, starting from the time of land surface exposure upon deglaciation, to the time at which regional sediment yield reaches average interglacial background values. At this point, the effects of paraglacial processes are indistinguishable from background, and the period of paraglaciation has ceased.

Introduction and development of the paraglacial concept

The term “paraglacial” was first used by Ryder (1971) and Church and Ryder (1972) to refer to the changes in sediment yield that take place as a result of the presence, and then retreat, of glaciers in a landscape. Specifically, Church and Ryder (1972) looked at changes in fluvial sediment yield during late...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Geography, Archaeology & Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Dr. Jasper Knight

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  1. Dr. Jasper Knight
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Correspondence to Jasper Knight .

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  1. Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada

    Peter T. Bobrowsky

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Knight, J. (2013). Paraglacial. In: Bobrowsky, P.T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Natural Hazards. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4399-4_264

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