The Symposium on Dynamics of Large Ice Masses was organized by the International Glaciological Society and held in Ottawa, Canada, from 21 to 25 August 1978 with the assistance of Carleton University. This was the fifth symposium organized by the Society, following the Symposium on Applied Glaciology that was published in Vol. 19 of the Journal of Glaciology.
The present symposium was organized through two committees. The Organizing Committee consisted of L. W. Gold (Chairman), J. P. Johnson, R. M. Koerner, O. Løken, C. S. L. Ommanney, M. R. de Quervain (President, International Glaciological Society), J. A. Jacobs (Treasurer, International Glaciological Society), H. Richardson (Secretary-General, International Glaciological Society). This Committee planned the detailed running of the Symposium, The scientific content was the responsibility of the Papers Committee, consisting of M. de Quervain (President), J. W. Glen (representing the Editors of the Journal of Glaciology), J. T. Andrews, W. F. Budd, C. B. B. Bull, G. K. C. Clarke, W. D. Hibler III, I. Zotikov, H. Richardson (Secretary). Papers were in three categories: invited papers, contributed papers, and recent work papers. Invited papers were requested by the Papers Committee. Contributed papers were selected by the Papers Committee from among those for which extended abstracts had been submitted by a deadline date in December 1977. Recent work papers were selected from among those submitted up to the date of the Symposium itself in order to allow very recent and topical work to be reported. The second circular of the Symposium giving full details of the arrangements was published in the Society’s news bulletin, Ice, No. 54, 1977.
Papers in all three categories which were presented at the Symposium were considered for publication in the proceedings provided the full manuscript was received in time. The refereeing procedure was the same as for papers submitted in the usual way to the Journal of Glaciology, and this issue of the Journal contains these papers together with abstracts of the papers presented at the Symposium but not published (for whatever reason). For some presented papers the editors have not received abstracts; in these cases there is no further record of the paper other than its title in the programme of meetings. Abstracts are also included for those contributed papers accepted for the meeting which, because of the absence of their authors, were not presented or discussed.
An edited version of the discussions which took place is also included. These discussions have been prepared by the Rapporteurs, whose names can be found in the programme of meetings. For Sessions 1–8, these are based on written contributions to the discussion handed in by participants in the discussion at the end of the session. The final general discussion has been edited from a tape-recording of the proceedings. All participants have been sent the draft edited version and given an opportunity to correct or up-date it.
The papers were presented at the Symposium in Sessions each of which was devoted to a main topic, but recent work papers were inserted into the programme where time permitted. In this issue the order is approximately that in which they were presented so the invited papers have thus been dispersed through the volume and precede other papers on a similar subject.
The International Glaciological Society would like to acknowledge the help it has received from the Division of Building Research of the National Research Council of Canada and from Carleton University in organizing this, its first symposium to be held away from its base in Cambridge.
