It came into existence in the Summer of 1995 at the International Quaternary Congress in Berlin and it is a follow-up of the previous Commission on Formation and Properties of Glacial Deposits, which had some similar research fields. The Commission on Glaciation has 3 officers and 19 full members, and many corresponding members who belong to individual Working Groups. The officers act as a clearing house for activities of Working Groups, which concentrate on specific topics. Most of the activities of the Commission are within these Working Groups.
Projects are more regional in scope or of shorter duration.
Anyone wishing to participate in the activities of a Working Group should contact the individual Working Group leader. It organised 10 international conferences and workshops on three continents, with average participation of 30-40 scientists per conference. The emphasis was on spending as much time as possible in the field. Excursion guides and abstract volumes of papers and posters document the meetings. Commission activities resulted in over 60 peer-reviewed papers in scentific journals including special volumes of Sedimentary Geology, Quaternary Science Reviews, Geological Society of America Special Paper, and Geological Quaterly.