Books > Earth & environment > Earth sciences > The hydrosphere > Oceanography (seas)
|
Buy Now
Mapping the Deep - The extraordinary story of ocean science (Paperback, Main)
Loot Price: R152
Discovery Miles 1 520
You Save: R38 (20%)
|
|
Mapping the Deep - The extraordinary story of ocean science (Paperback, Main)
(2 ratings, sign in to rate)
List price R190
Loot Price R152
Discovery Miles 1 520
You Save R38 (20%)
Supplier out of stock. If you add this item to your wish list we will let you know when it becomes available.
|
This book starts at the very bottom of the vast ocean and slowly
drifts up. It begins with an extremely detailed description of the
sea bed, 'to show what the ocean might look like on a waterless
day'. We float slowly past the summits of submerged seamounts,
gliding through mid water, passing thousands of jellyfish. By the
time we reach the surface at the end, we're literally gasping for
air. Since its origins, ocean science seems to have been conducted
by a cast of lovable eccentrics: the machines these men depended
upon were no less colourful. The bathyscape is perhaps the most
bizarre, named so for obvious reasons once you see the picture of
it. Designed by Auguste Piccard, who held the record for the
highest ascent in a balloon, in 1960 the bathyscape carried two
scientists into the deepest chasm on Earth, the Challenger Deep of
the Mariana Trench. This book explores and illuminates the
light-deprived deep ocean. 'We live at a time when the outside
chance of finding a fossil bacterium on Mars is enough time to
generate tremendous enthusiasm for billion-dollar missions of
exploration to that planet.And yet we are content to pass over in
complacency and almost total ignorance 'the largest and strangest
habitat on Earth' writes Kunzig.This book goes a long way towards
shaking our complacency and alleviating that ignorance. Review by
Dea Birkett Editor's note: Dea Birkett's latest book is Serpent in
Paradise about Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific. (Kirkus UK)
The scientific exploration of the ocean is an extraordinary story.
Hundreds have climbed Everest yet only two people have descended,
in a homespun 'bathyscaphe', to the very depths of the deepest sea
chasm. Amazing oases teeming with life have been found in deep sea
volcanic vents but we have hardly begun to identify their resident
species. We know that sea currents control our climate but we don't
know how. Ocean scientists are pretty sure that we could reverse
the greenhouse effect by manipulating plankton blooms with doses of
iron ... but fear we might trigger an ice age in the act. Mapping
the Deep is a state-of-the-ocean report on the sea and its science.
After amazing you at how little you know of the ocean, Kunzig
swiftly draws you into a compelling narrative of oceanographers
past and present - scientists, pioneers, maverick thinkers, deep
water divers and submersible pilots. Like all the best science
books, this is a hugely informative page-turner that confirms
Robert Kunzig's position in the top rank of popular science
writers.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
|
|
Email address subscribed successfully.
A activation email has been sent to you.
Please click the link in that email to activate your subscription.