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This book presents decade-long advances in atmospheric research in the Mackenzie River Basin in northern Canada, which encompasses environments representative of most cold areas on Earth. Collaborative efforts by a team of about 100 scientists and engineers have yielded knowledge entirely transferable to other high latitude regions in America, Europe and Asia. Emphases are placed on the investigation of processes (including storm genesis, precipitation, moisture and energy fluxes and frost), and the improvement and application of a suite of models and remote sensing to enhance the assessment of climate variability and water resources. This book complements the second volume coming from the GEWEX project, dealing with the region's hydrological processes. Together these books provide a unique synthesis of atmospheric and hydrological findings and an integrative approach across disciplines in addressing major research issues of cold regions.

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Nahanni National Park Reserve in the Dehcho Region of the Northwest Territories, Canada, approximately 500 km (311 mi) west of Yellowknife, protects a portion of the Mackenzie Mountains Natural Region. The centrepiece of the park is the South Nahanni River. Four great canyons, called First, Second, Third and Fourth Canyon, line this spectacular whitewater river. The name Nahanni comes from the indigenous Dene language and can be translated as 'spirit.' ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Virginia Military District was an approximately 4.2 million acre (17,000 km²) area of land in what is now the state of Ohio that was reserved by Virginia to use as payment for veterans of the American Revolutionary War. Virginia had historic claims to much of the Northwest Territory, which included Ohio, dating from its colonial charter. Virginia and the other states with claims over western lands had to cede those claims to overcome other states' objections to ratifying the Articles of Confederation. In return for ceding its claims in 1784, Virginia was granted this area to provide military bounty land grants. The Ohio district was a surplus reserve, in that military land grants were first made in an area southeast of the Ohio River, in what is now Kentucky. The Ohio land was to be used only after the land southeast of the river was exhausted. ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. It is approximately 981 miles (1,579 km) long and is located in the Eastern United States.The river had great significance in the history of the Native Americans, as numerous civilizations formed along its valley. In the last five centuries prior to European contact, the Mississippian culture built numerous regional chiefdoms and major earthwork mounds in the Ohio Valley, such as Angel Mounds near Evansville, Indiana. For thousands of years, Native Americans, like the European explorers and settlers who followed them, used the river as a major transportation and trading route. About 1200 CE, the area of Kentucky was the site of longterm wars between the Iroquois, invading from present-day New York, and the Osage and other Ohio River tribes. Over centuries, the Osage, Omaha, Ponca and Kaw migrated west of the Mississippi River, settling by the mid-17th century in their historic grounds in Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma and nearby states. ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Qikiqtaaluk Region, Qikiqtani Region or Baffin Region is an administrative region of Nunavut, Canada. Qikiqtaaluk is the traditional Inuktitut name for Baffin Island. Although Qikiqtaaluk Region is the most commonly used name in official contexts, several notable public organizations, including Statistics Canada and Nunavut Tourism prefer the term Baffin Region.The region consists of Baffin Island, the Belcher Islands, Akimiski Island, Mansel Island, Prince Charles Island, Bylot Island, Devon Island, Cornwallis Island, Bathurst Island, Amund Ringnes Island, Ellef Ringnes Island, Axel Heiberg Island, Ellesmere Island, the Melville Peninsula, the eastern part of Melville Island, and the northern parts of Prince of Wales Island, and Somerset Island, plus smaller islands in between. The regional seat is Iqaluit (population 6,184). It contains both the northernmost and southernmost areas of the territory. ... Read more

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Antarctica has not always been a place of ice and snow. Once part of the supercontinent of Gondwanaland, it is believed to have enjoyed a warmer climate in which plants and land animals thrived. However, nowadays less than one percent of the surface is ice free, and at bedrock level the ice can be up to a million or more years old. In comparison, the Arctic consists entirely of pack-ice which breaks into ice floes in summer and floats on the Arctic Ocean.

While the ice gives rise to spectacular scenery, both on land and sea, these regions also have an astonishing variety of wildlife. The two Poles have few common species (apart from some birds and whales) but many unique endemic ones - polar bears, walruses and puffins in the north, penguins and elephant seals in the south.

The content will cover the following topics, among others:
- Geography and geology
- Climate and weather
- Ice, icebergs, glaciers and land formations
- History and exploration
- Wildlife and flora - how unique life has evolved in a very harsh environment
- Polar science - the scientists who live and work in Antarctica, the research bases
- Icebreaker shipping and tourism
- Politics and treaties and the interested parties, including the 1988 Minerals Convention
- The people of the Arctic
- Conservation and the future (specific Polar issues, such as melting of the ice caps and ozone depletion).

Both regions have long been associated with tales of great heroism in their exploration, and here too there are common links. Roald Amundsen was first to the South Pole and died in a rescue in the north (at that time his ship, the Fram, had been furthest south and furthest north). Frederic Cook, who lodged a false claim to being first to the North Pole, was the first to winter over in Antarctica, as part of a Belgian expedition. Nowadays, tourists can visit in cruise ships and see the almost impossible task the explorers set themselves.

Both areas are of concern ecologically. For several years there has been a hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica; one is now opening over the Arctic Circle. Ecologists watch both Antarctica and the Arctic for any signs of change that may have implications for the planet as a whole. They join scientists from all over the world conducting research in these unique conditions.

With interesting and authoritative text written by a team of international experts, accompanied by over a thousand superb photographs, this book will fascinate all with an interest in the Poles and their wildlife. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Much more than a "coffee table" book!
This is a beautifully produced and wonderfully comprehensive book. If you want a book which concentrates on wildlife then look elsewhere (eg Antarctic Wildlife by H Shirihai) - better still get both as complementary to each other!
The layout and structure is well conceived, the maps are clear, the photos are always good and often magnificent, the writing is aimed at intelligent readers, the index is good and above all the coverage is all-embracing within its subject. There is a nice section on Antarctic related Web links but, a minor criticism, no Bibliography. As the title indicates it is 90+% about the Antarctic with the Arctic as an "add-on". I was at first a bit negative about the inclusion of the Arctic but have come to the view that it is useful as a comparator - but you wouldn't buy this book for its Arctic content.

AWESOME
I been looking for a whille for a great Antarctica book.
this is by far the best.
wall to wall photostopics on everything explorations,wildlife,marine life, you name it.
spectacular coffee table book dont miss.

it even covers the artic "north pole" also

Excellent book!
I am an Earth Science teacher and I have done research in Antarctica. The book has many wonderful photos and highly informative text about the geologic, oceanographic, atmospheric and biologic features of the polar regions. I recommend this book for anyone interested in these areas, especially teachers.

An excellent book on Antarctica!
I recently took a cruise to Antarctica and this book was in the ship's library.This is an excellent book on Antarctica and the pictures are fabulous!This makes a great coffe-table book! ... Read more

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"Katherine Morrissey's approach is fresh and distinctive, the scale of the research is enormous, and the case studies and brief biographies are both engaging and instructive. Most important, this book bridges the gap that usually separates the world of social history from the world of elite intellectual history."--Patricia Nelson Limerick, University of Colorado

"A penetrating, provocative look from the inside at the creation and contestation of regionalism that will give the 'ghostly' Inland Empire new vitality and fame among readers concerned with the rich complexities of a more fully human geography."--D. W. Meinig, Syracuse University

Rarely recognized outside its boundaries today, the Pacific Northwest region known at the turn of the century as the Inland Empire included portions of the states of Washington and Idaho, as well as British Columbia. Katherine G. Morrissey traces the history of this self-proclaimed region from its origins through its heyday. In doing so, she challenges the characterization of regions as fixed places defined by their geography, economy, and demographics. Regions, she argues, are best understood as mental constructs, internally defined through conflicts and debates among different groups of people seeking to control a particular area's identity and direction. She tells the story of the Inland Empire as a complex narrative of competing perceptions and interests. ... Read more

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The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. Volumes 88-89 (1884) contain accounts of two captains' searches for a North-West Passage to Asia in 1631. Their explorations were beset by bad weather. Foxe circumnavigated Hudson's Bay before retreating, while James became ice-bound for the winter, losing several members of his crew before retuning to England a year after Foxe. No new attempts were made for another century, as their accounts of the harrowing conditions they endured discouraged further voyages of exploration for the desired trade route. ... Read more

Product Description
The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. Volumes 88-89 (1884) contain accounts of two captains' searches for a North-West Passage to Asia in 1631. Their explorations were beset by bad weather. Foxe circumnavigated Hudson's Bay before retreating, while James became ice-bound for the winter, losing several members of his crew before retuning to England a year after Foxe. No new attempts were made for another century, as their accounts of the harrowing conditions they endured discouraged further voyages of exploration for the desired trade route. ... Read more

Product Description
The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. Volumes 88-89 (1884) contain accounts of two captains' searches for a North-West Passage to Asia in 1631. Their explorations were beset by bad weather. Foxe circumnavigated Hudson's Bay before retreating, while James became ice-bound for the winter, losing several members of his crew before retuning to England a year after Foxe. No new attempts were made for another century, as their accounts of the harrowing conditions they endured discouraged further voyages of exploration for the desired trade route. ... Read more

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Only six of the seventeen original members of Sir John Franklin's first Arctic expedition returned. John Richardson was one of them. His journal recounts their journey across the barren grounds, and raises questions about Franklin's ability as a leader. In addition to his achievements as a doctor, meteorologist, and cartographer, Richardson was the first great naturalist to study the North American Arctic. His journal made an outstanding contribution to ornithology, ichthyology, botany and geology, and much of modern Arctic research is founded upon his observations. ... Read more

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The history of European colonisation has been based upon the marginalisation of `first peoples'. This legacy is most apparent in the outback of Australia and Canada, the remote areas which have harboured the Aboriginal, Indian and Inuit peoples.

Modernisation, the `boom and bust' model of state and private development, and the partial and biased aid provided by the state have eroded many communities and the holistic beliefs which underpin them.

Third World in the First explores the past, present and future of these peoples, their treatment by the `West' and the strategies of development left open to them. ... Read more

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Ancient People of the Arctic traces the lives of the Palaeo-Eskimos, the bold first explorers of the Arctic. Four thousand years ago, these people entered the far northern extremes of the North American continent, carving a living out of their bleak new homeland. From the hints they left behind, accessible only through the fragmented archaeological record, Robert McGhee ingeniously reconstructs a picture of this life at the margins. He discusses how the Palaeo-Eskimos spread across the entire Arctic, explains how they dealt with sharp climate changes that drastically altered their environment, offers glimpses into their spiritual practices and world view, and speculates about their eventual demise. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

vivid account of a lost people
The topic of this book is the history of the paleo-Eskimos, who thrived in the North Amercian Arctic for nearly four thousand years until the arrival of the Innuit. Although the book is nearly exclusively based on archaelogical findings, Robert McGhee succeeds in assembling this data into a very fascinating account of this people lost in time. Fortunately, as the author explains, despite the long period elapsed since the disappearance of the paleo-Eskimos, due to the special arctic environment and climate relatively much has been preserved. The author guides through the history more or less chronologically, explaining the cultural and technological development of these first settlers in the Canadian Arctic and Greenland. He speculates on reasons for major changes in hunting techniques and religious practices and the final disappearance of this people vis-a-vis the push toward East by the Innuit.
A well written book on a fascinating subject. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

A Dark Voyage Into The Heart of the Canadian Arctic
This book is interesting for a number of reasons.First, it is a story which has a history of its own, written decades ago and re-published in an updated version exhibiting the artwork of the original hardcover.However, it is the story of the legendary John Hornby which grasps the reader, and catapults him back into a time when true adventurists and explorers still existed.The book does a wonderful job of making the reader feel that he is with Hornby in the Arctic, living in a hole dug into an esker, walking blindly through a blizzard, or starving on a river bank in the middle of Arctic 'summer'. A must read for those who enjoy stories of adventure in desolate places. ... Read more