“Micromorphology: A Practical Guide to the Microscale Analysis of Glacial Sediments and Processes” is an excellent compilation featuring chapters by leading researchers and practitioners who use microscopy to study glacial and related sediments, helping to investigate former environments around glaciers and ice sheets. True to its title, this volume serves as a comprehensive practical guide, starting with essential techniques for sample collection and thin-case study preparation. The book offers clear instructions on the microscopic description of glacial sediments, including basic knowledge of relevant mineralogy, microtextures, and microstructures. Notably, the volume also provides detailed methods for advanced microscale digital analysis. This accessible book equips students and researchers with the tools for microscale analysis of glacial sediments, thereby enhancing their understanding of subglacial, periglacial, and ice-marginal environments. Extensive case studies follow to demonstrate the use of micromorphology in glacial sedimentology, sediment provenance, and the understanding of key glacial and periglacial processes such as soft-sediment deformation and subglacial till formation. Each chapter is beautifully illustrated and well written, supported by thorough, up-to-date references at the end of the volume. This hardcover volume is priced at just £45 and offers excellent value for any glacial sedimentologist, even if they are not focusing on micromorphology. We look forward to seeing the book also available electronically, making it more accessible and allowing authors to share their individual chapters (although the references at the end of the book will need to be added to each chapter). The volume begins with a brief introduction by Phillips and Menzies. In the next chapter, Van der Meer and Menzies provide a clear overview of the field's research history, highlighting the discipline's growth since the 1980s. These authors then guide the reader through field sampling and sampling strategies in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 offers a detailed overview of sample processing and thin-case study preparation by Menzies, Palmer, and Rice, who together have nearly a century of experience in this field. Phillips follows this in Chapter 5 by providing a concise yet thorough background on optical mineralogy and microscopy. This is a vital chapter for practitioners who may not have had a traditional geology education that covered optical mineralogy and petrology. Chapter 6 then goes on to describe glacial sediments in thin sections, explained eloquently by Gehrmann, Menzies, Hüneke, and Brumme. The next chapter, by Crompton, Wagner, and Hansen, provides a state-of-the-art guide to image analysis and concludes with three case studies, essentially chapters in their own sense, but labeled case studies 7.1, 7.2., and 7.3 by Licht and Crompton, Tunwal, and Hansen and Zoet, respectively. Palmer follows with Chapter 8, focusing on the micromorphology of glacilacustrine sediment, with two case studies: one by Palmer (case study 8.1) and the other by Linch (case study 8.2). In Chapter 9, Lee, Pearson, and Phillips guide the reader through the fundamentals of heavy mineral analysis and provenance studies. This concludes with three concise case studies authored by Lee and Pearson (case studies 9.1, 9.2, and 9.3), and a fourth by Phillips (case study 9.4). Reinardy authors Chapter 10 on sedimentation during gravity-driven mass movement flow deposits. Four fascinating case studies follow, written by Reinardy and Likas (case study 10.10), Phillips (case studies 10.2 and 10.4), and Phillips and Teasdale (case study 10.3). Chapter 11 by Van Vliet-Lanoë explains the characteristics of micromorphology caused by frost action and diagenesis in glacigenic and derived sediments. Sediment-filled hydrofracture systems in glacial environments are covered in Chapter 12, written by Phillips and van der Meer. Two case studies follow, authored by Phillips and Kearsey (case study 12.1) and Phillips and Hughes (case study 12.2). Chapter 13 discusses soft-sediment deformation at both macro- and microlevels. Phillips provides an excellent overview and can be seen as a primer on structural geology for soft sediments. This chapter concludes with case studies from Phillips and Evans (case study 13.1), Gehrmann et al. (case study 13.2), Phillips and Merritt (case study 13.3), and Belzyt et al. (case study 13.4). In the next chapter, Phillips, Menzies, and van der Meer thoroughly explain the nature of subglacial tills and deformation. Numerous case studies are presented to illustrate the broad range of research, including contributions by Menzie and Reitner (case study 14.1), Phillips and Piotrowski (case study 14.2), Phillips (case study 14.3), Reitner and Menzies (case study 14.4), Phillips, van der Meer, and Lipka (case study 14.5), Phillips and Benediktsson (case study 14.6), Menzies (case studies 14.7 and 14.8), van der Meer and Davies (14.9), and Menzie, Paulen, and Rice (14.10). The final chapter, Chapter 15, illustrates the applications of micromorphology to exploration in glaciated terrain. In this chapter, Paulen, Rice, and McClenaghan show the broader relevance of the discipline, followed by a case study on the micromorphology of a dispersal train from the Pine Point Mississippi Valley-type lead–zinc mine by Paulen et al. (case study 15.1). If I were to make one recommendation, this section could have been expanded to help us illustrate the societal value of these studies. In summary, this volume is excellent, and the authors should be very proud of their work. The Quaternary Research Association also deserves praise for the high quality of production and for keeping the price so reasonable. The case studies are generally geographically diverse. However, there is a lack of studies from Asia and South America, likely due to limited research in those regions. Hopefully, this volume will help address that gap. There is no doubt that this book should be on the shelf (or the bedside table) of all micromorphology practitioners, and ideally, in the near future, individual chapters will be available as PDFs for sharing with students. Congratulations to the authors and the Quaternary Research Association on this seminal work.
Lewis Andrew Owen (Tue,) studied this question.