Content area
Full text
VATNAJÖKULL NATIONAL PARK (SOUTHERN REGION): GUIDE TO A GLACIAL LANDSCAPE LEGACY. By DAVID J.A. EVANS. Reykjavík: Vatnajökull National Park, 2016. ISBN 978-9935-9343-0-7. Available from Vatnajökulsöijóógaróur/Vatnajökull National Park, Klapparstígur 25-27, 101 Reykjavík, Iceland or from Professor David J.A. Evans, Department of Geography, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, United Kingdom. 224 p., colour and b&w illus., foreword, notes, references. Softbound. £35.
The author describes his book as a "guide" to this impressive, one might say, unsurpassable, glacial landscape of southeast Iceland. In terms of its ease of access, a five hours' drive from Reykjavik, and the dramatically displayed landscape resulting from climate-induced melt and retreat of the ice cap margins and its many outlet glaciers, it is incomparable worldwide. The Vatnajökull National Park, incorporating the pre-existing Skaftafell National Park, was established in 2008. Thus the east-west distance of little more than 100 km embraces Iceland's highest mountain (Örafajökull, an ice-capped strato-volcano at 2010 m asl), Europe's largest ice cap, and an immense array of glacial and fluvio-glacial landforms: more than any normal textbook could accommodate.
Professor Evans has not only produced that "more than normal" textbook, he has also provided a magnificent array of maps, diagrams, tabulated data, and photographs, mostly in colour. Many of the full-page colour photographs stand independently as breathtaking works of art that I long to have on my living room walls. His written expression is excellent and parallels the outstanding exposition of his unsurpassed scientific competence.
The book is colour-coded into its major sections: 1) Introduction to a flagship...