Preface

The International Symposium on Ice and Water Interactions was held from 26 to 30 July 2004 on the Portland State University campus, in the city of Portland, Oregon, USA. The symposium was organized by a local committee at Portland State University, chaired by Christina Hulbe and assisted by Andrew Fountain, Carolyn Dreidger (of the USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory), Laurie Padman (of Earth and Space Research), Joseph Walder (USGS, CVO), and Tim Youngberg (Tualatin High School, Oregon), working together with Magnús Már Magnússon, Secretary General of the Society. A team of 12 student volunteers provided additional support during the meeting. The symposium was co-sponsored by the Portland State University Department of Geology, US National Science Foundation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the United States Geological Survey.

One hundred and eleven registrants and 12 student volunteers attended symposium sessions in Hoffman Hall and Smith Memorial Student Union on the Portland State Campus. Fifty-five oral and 43 poster presentations were given in 4 full days. A total of 41 papers is published in this volume. Papers submitted to the symposium were reviewed according to the International Glaciological Society’s usual procedures, with the addition of an electronic submittal and review demonstration project.

Interactions between water and ice span a wide range of topics, from some of the fundamental problems in glaciology to the daily lives of people who depend on alpine watersheds, a topic of particular importance in the northwestern US, where the meeting was held. The goal of the symposium was to promote interdisciplinary dialog among specialists whose work spans these related, but distinct themes. Two invited lectures addressed issues of ice and water both near and far. Richard Waitt discussed the giant Glacial Lake Missoula floods, which repeatedly submerged the Portland metropolitan area, and Chris McKay spoke about extraterrestrial ice and the possibility of life on other planets.