Perils of a Restless Planet: Scientific Perspectives on Natural Disasters

Perils of a Restless Planet: Scientific Perspectives on Natural Disasters
Average customer rating:

Extremely interesting book on science of disasters....

particularly appropriate for a post tsunami read

Couldn't put it down

Readable Non-Fiction

Scientific Perspectives on Natural Disasters

Perils of a Restless Planet: Scientific Perspectives on Natural Disasters
Jr, Ernest Zebrowski , and Jr., Ernest Zebrowski
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0521654882

Amazon.com

The Johnstown flood of 1889, the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, the pan-European bubonic plague epidemic of 1347-51--all of these events left deep impressions on contemporary history and are remembered even today. We have yet to gauge the effects of more modern disasters--for instance, the Kobe earthquake of 1995, which killed 5,000 Japanese--but we recognize their significance. Many scientists are now engaged in developing means to forecast natural disasters more accurately and to put in place more effective safety measures. Ernest Zebrowski tracks their work through history, noting that even the most current of ideas about, say, the dangers of wind shear will almost certainly be proven obsolete in the years to come. Students of technological history, geology, and climatology will find his work stimulating, and general readers will find it highly accessible.

Book Description

From epidemics and earthquakes to tornados and tidal waves, the overwhelming power of nature never ceases to instill humankind with both terror and awe. As natural disasters continue to claim human lives and leave destruction in their wake, Perils of a Restless Planet examines our attempts to understand and anticipate such phenomena. Now available in paperback, this highly acclaimed book draws on actual events from ancient to present times. Coverage focuses on basic scientific inquiry, technological innovation and, ultimately, public policy to provide a lucid and riveting look at the natural events that have shaped our view of natural disasters. While shedding light on the elusive quality of nature's intermittent tantrums and the limits scientific study and laboratory replication impose on our understanding of its mercurial ways, the author extrapolates from the history of science to suggest how we may someday learn to warn and protect the vulnerable populations on our small, tempestuous planet. Compelling and informative, this book will find readers both in and outside of the scientific community.

Customer Reviews:

Extremely interesting book on science of disasters...........2007-05-10

I've long been interested in climate, weather, and geological sciences that have very little to do with the science of the body or biology that I usually teach or that I read for. I didn't get much of this science in school, and I find it fascinating, though of course, it makes me extremely uneasy to read information like this after we have had several very large natural disasters that led to major suffering on the part of human beings partly through our own fault, and partly as a natural condition of being part of an eco-system that is very much impacted by what we humans do.

This book is not just the usual listing of catastrophic happenings, but rather a few major events are listed with significant information about what either led up to the event, or how the event happened, or how and why it impacted civilization. A lot of this stuff was a mix of several different ways of looking at disasters, including epidemiology and population statistics, things that are not usually looked at until way after the event, and even then, are dismissed. But we dismiss this type of study at our own peril. After Katrina, people should understand more that if you put a city near an immense body of water, with no protection for that city, whether natural or otherwise, there will be consequences of that action. Whether that consequence occurs during the lifetime of the people who build that city without thinking on the edge of a precipice, or whether it occurs during their children's lifetime, has little or no bearing on the deliverance of those consequences.

This book is a must read for urban engineers and urban planning. Whether dealing with environmental impact of building unsafely, or the population statistcs of whether an area can adequately support an exponentially growing population without leading to problems such as that seen on Easter Island where a small environment could not support a large population adequately, is up for grabs. I would hope that those who come after us would do better at taking such concerns to heart when planning communities.

Karen L. Sadler

particularly appropriate for a post tsunami read.......2005-11-16

This is an approachable but not dumbed down introduction to the science and history of natural disasters: picking it up in the early post-Thailand/Indonesia/India etc tsunami it explained the whyfores and wherefores as well as the nature and extent of the damage clearly and concisely.
Highly recommended as an either an introduction to more technical treatments, or as an excellent 'popular science' outline of the subject.

Couldn't put it down.......2004-08-06

One of the best books I've read in a long time. This is popular science done right! For a start, the writing is very clear and the author manages to explain some complicated subjects in a straightforward manner.
A book on natural disasters wouldn't be complete without exciting tales of death, mayhem and general destruction. In this book, the author proves himself a first rate yarn spinner. I was on the edge of my seat waiting to hear what happened when Mont Pelee exploded or when Lisbon was swamped by a tsunami.
This is the kind of science book I like. It assumes no prior knowledge of the subject, yet also assumes the reader is intelligent and can grasp new concepts. For example, the second chapter (in a book on natural disasters) is titled "The Evolution of Science" and provides a lucid and compact summary of the history and philosophy of science, no less! Bravo! Another great thing is the auther is always ready to point out the limitations of current science or current techniques. Some authors tend to gloss over the unknowns and pretend they know everything.
You can learn a lot from this book. Each page is dense with scientific information, with no filler. What to do if involved in an earthquake, hurricane, tsunami or volcano. How to build a house. How the richter scale works. Its all in there. And the author isn't afraid to throw a few equations into the mix to illustrate the science behind the discussed phenomenon.
If you are a thinker, you will love this book. Guaranteed!

Readable Non-Fiction.......2004-06-11

If you're the type of person who likes reading about disasters, but who wants more than tales of woe, then buy this book! Zebrowski gives thoughtful descriptions of various natural catastrophes that were exacerbated by human foibles and design shortcomings. His narrative offers enough detail to satisfy the engineer, but explains complex concepts in a manner that makes the material accessible and enjoyable to the layman.

Scientific Perspectives on Natural Disasters.......2002-05-20

Ernest Zebrowski, Jr. is both a teacher and a story-teller in "Perils of a Restless Planet." I picked the book up to review it and found myself reading it from cover to cover all over again.

Stylistically, the author will begin with the story of, say, the San Francisco earthquake (1906). He then compares it to the Messina earthquake (1908), and asks why there were so many more casualties in the Messina quake (only a 33% - 45% survival rate as compared to San Francisco's 99.8% survival rate). This question leads to a discussion of the strengths of materials---how well they perform when deformed by tension, compression, shear, and torsion. In San Francisco, the houses were built of wood, which will bend and twist and allow its occupants time to escape during a quake. The houses in Messina were built of stone. "It is this plastic behavior of wood (versus stone) that explains the dramatic difference in survival rates in the San Francisco and Messina earthquakes of 1906 and 1908."

There's lots of physics (and some biology, archeology, and sociology) in 'Perils' but it is all very clear and palatable. In fact, this book would make a good overview of science for high school students. It's got stories of volcanoes, plagues, earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, asteroids, and poisonous lakes to hold the students' interest. The clear physical explanations of, for example, why some boats will float during a tsunami and others will turn turtle, are an excellent foundation for further explorations into the worlds of science. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in how we've managed to survive and even thrive on the surface of such a restless planet. It is an excellent summary of the science necessary to understand many of the Earth's natural catastrophes.

Restless Skies: The Ultimate Weather Book
Average customer rating:

Great Weather Overview

A wonderful weather book

Everyone Loved It So Much, We Now Give Restless Skies As Gifts,

Fascinating book!

Restless Skies: The Ultimate Weather Book
Paul Douglas
Manufacturer: Sterling
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0760761132

Book Description

Really attractive! Great pictures and illustrations-lots of great weather and climate information."--Willard Scott, Today Show weather reporter

"Paul uses his 25 years...as a meteorologist to let readers explore the why and hows of weather...a fascinating look at the forces that influence our lives every day."--Mike Seidel, Weather Channel meteorologist

Improved technology is teaching us more about the weather all the time, and with new knowledge comes new concerns and confusion. Is global warming real? Where is Tornado Alley? And just what are GOES satellites and NEXRAD Doppler? Meteorologist Paul Douglas provides the answers to all these questions and more, along with vivid and fascinating illustrations, photos, trivia, and graphics. Find out what a difference a degree makes; as well as information about El Niño, the 15 worst storms of the century, and how to protect yourself against the worst that the weather can bring. From the distinctions between a weather warning, watch, and advisory to the definition of an F-5 tornado, it has all the essentials, clearly explained.

Customer Reviews:

Great Weather Overview.......2005-09-27

This is a great book for people mildly interested in weather phenomena all the way to hard core 'weather junkies'. Paul Douglas, who is very popular in the Twin Cities, covers a wide range of weather topics, focusing on extreme weather conditions that grip our attention, like tornadoes and hurricanes, and even addresses politically sensitive issues like global warming. His style is sufficiently scientific to satisfy serious weather buffs, yet the book is an easy read. I learned a lot of details about weather phenomena that actually should help me understand the next extreme weather situation in my area. The photos are spectacular. My kids, who study weather in elementary school, really enjoy the book too. Cool photos.

A wonderful weather book.......2005-09-26

It was the name, Paul Douglas, that caught my attention. I remembered seeing him many years ago on Ted Kopple's Nightline. Then, not very long ago, I watched him doing a guest stint on CBS' morning show. Friends, who I visited in Minneapolis this summer, pointed out that he is considered to be the best television meteorologist in the Twin Cities. So, based on what I knew about him I bought the book - and I was not disappointed.

On over 250 pages the author packs a wealth of information, enhanced by hundreds of excellent illustrations. There is no technical jargon in this book. This is not a textbook. Doulas has the gift of explaining complex phenomena in simple layman's language. It covers case histories from hurricanes in Florida, ice storms in the Northeast to the 1995 heat storm in Chicago.

In light of last year's four hurricanes in Florida and this year's devastation by Katrina and Rita in the South, the two chapters on hurricanes and tornadoes alone are worth the price of admission.

The attractive book is in a large format, the kind you may not want to stick on your bookhelf, but place on a coffee table.
Because many will want to look through it, and probably wind up ordering it

Everyone Loved It So Much, We Now Give Restless Skies As Gifts,.......2005-09-25

I purchased Restless Skies last Christmas and kept it on my coffee table to read through, refer to and admire the photos. It was not just a coffee table book but also became a great resource for the wild and unpredictable weather we all seem to experience.

Over the course of the year family and friends who were visiting me would often pick up the book and begin reading through it more and more. I then decided that I would start giving Restless Skies as gifts to my friends and family for birthdays and other gift giving occasions

The genuine and sincere number of thank you's that I have received for giving this gift could fill a book in its own right. They not only love the information contained in it but the writing style of Paul Douglas the author and the photography ties the whole package together.

It is rare to find a great book that can double not only as a resource but have so many awesome photos in it that qualifies for the coffee table in the den or living room. Restless Skies does it for me and all the folks that we bought it for.

A great book and a great read - definitely a keeper!

Fascinating book!.......2005-08-04

Restless Skies lives up to its subtitle: The Ultimate Weather Book. I got this book on impulse at the library, and now have to order copies for myself and my brother. Paul Douglas explains everything a layman would want to know about weather, including what to do in every possible situation. From rainbows and black ice to hurricanes and blizzards, all explained in delightfully easy prose. Photographs and illustrations generously pack these pages. Numerous sidebars provide interesting trivia and information to supplement the major sections. I especially appreciate the explanations of what weathermen mean by various terms...like the difference between "storm watch" and "storm warning", and the difference between "partly cloudy" and "partly sunny".This book is worth getting for the photographs alone, but if you take the time to read it (it's developed in nice coffee break-size segments), you'll discover the answers to all sorts of things you've wondered about over the years. It's really fun!My one gripe is the inclusion of the Johnstown Flood in the Top 15 U.S. Weather and Climate Disasters -- I just don't think a poorly maintained dam breaking qualifies.

The Restless Northwest: A Geological Story

Average customer rating:

The complex, made understandable
I can't wait for the movie
Wonderful Simplicity
Geology of the Northwest for all readers
Restless Northwest

The Restless Northwest: A Geological Story
Hill Williams
Manufacturer: Washington State University
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0874222508

Book Description

The Restless Northwest provides a brief, easy-to-follow overview of the geologic processes that shaped the Northwest.

One of the attractions of the Northwest is its varied terrain, from the volcanic Cascade Range to the flood-scoured scablands of eastern Washington and the eroded peaks of the northern Rockies. These vast differences are the result of a collision of the old and the new. The western edge of Idaho was once the edge of ancient North America; as eons passed, a jumble of islands, minicontinents, and sediment piled up against the old continental edge, gradually extending it west to the present coastline.

Figuring out how and when these various land forms came together to create the Northwest took much geological detective work. Unlike many geology books that focus on rocks, The Restless Northwest emphasizes the human drama of geology. The narrative is sprinkled with firsthand accounts of people involved in the exciting geological discoveries made in recent years.

Hill Williams uses an informal conversational style to explain complex processes to a general readership. He enlivens the story of long-ago geologic events with fascinating asides on everything from enormous undersea tube worms to the Willamette meteorite, the largest ever found in the United States. Interested readers will discover much about Pacific Northwest geology without getting bogged down in an overabundance of details and scientific terms.

Customer Reviews:

The complex, made understandable.......2007-10-09

The authour, Hill williams was a science writer for the Seattle Times for twentt-four years, not a professor of geology, there in lies his power as a story teller, and by God what a story.
The story of our great NorthWest spans 175 million years, to a time when there was no Atlanic Ocean,to a world pushed together, all in a prehistoric hairball-"Pangaea" (MOM).

This is a new look at a very complex history of the world, plate movement, over a incomprehinicble time span, but with the use of tons of maps, common but understandable nartive, this work is outstanding

I can't wait for the movie.......2006-03-10

Once, while hiking the North Cascade mountains with my uncle, Duwayne Marlo Anderson (a noted geologist), he pointed to a particular mountain and explained to me how it had moved, by the forces of plate tectonics, from a position far to the south, northward, up the coast, to be lodged in its current location in northwestern Washington.

Four years later I found myself at Paradise, in Mt. Rainier National Park. I'd come there for a weekend of snowshoeing with my wife and her parents, but I'd inadvertently forgotten to bring the book I was reading ("The New Science of Evo Devo, Endless Forms Most Beautiful," by Sean B. Carroll). Desperate to find something to read (I feel naked without a book in tow) I found my way to the gift shop and stumbled across "The Restless Northwest" on display. Leafing through the book, I happened to turn to page 58, which describes two superterranes that were lodged against the northwest coast of ancient North America roughly 50 million years ago, pushed into place by the movements of the ancient Kula and Farallon plates. Here was the explanation for the mountain that my uncle had pointed out years earlier. I snatched up the book and read it cover to cover over the next 5 days.

This is an absolutely great book. Hill Williams is a respected and accomplished science writer with a distinguished carrier. He understands the story, and has the writing skills to make it interesting. And what a story it is.

Williams begins by taking us back 200 million years ago to the super continent Pangaea and describes how it broke apart, pulled in different directions by the forces of plate tectonics. He tells the story from a story teller's perspective, weaving the various narratives of plate tectonics, seafloor spreading, volcanism, glacial activity, etc. into the chronicle that describes how the Northwest came by its unique landscape. Of the many topics Williams covers, a few stand out in my mind as the most interesting. First on my list of favorites is his explanation of how the Rocky Mountains were formed. Second is the way he recounts the additions of superterranes and their part in forming the northwest corner of Washington, as well as the Canadian Rockies and Vancouver Island. Possibly the most interesting story he tells is that of the great basaltic floods that covered the Columbia River basin, flowing over much of eastern Washington, even following the course of the Columbia River all the way to the Pacific Ocean. My personal favorite, though, is his description of the great floods that accompanied the semi-cyclic emptying of ancient Lake Missoula.

While those were the highlights for me, there were many other fascinating accounts, including massive underwater flows caused by earthquakes, and the earthquakes themselves, powerful enough to lift whole sections of the landscape by meters, while equally depressing other regions. And, of course, there is the story of the cascade volcanoes, symbol of the Pacific Northwest itself.

This is a relatively short book (only about 160 pages - I read it in less than a week), but it's surprisingly complete and detailed. The illustrations add greatly to the book. They are well drawn, easy to read, and they speak to the text using the same terminology.

This book will appeal most to the casual weekend geologist (I place myself in that category). If you enjoy hiking the Northwest, and especially the Cascades, Columbia River Gorge, and/or Olympics, the book should have special value in helping to explain the formations you'll see, and the forces that created them. The next time you find yourself on a craggy peak deep in the Olympic National Forest, and you look down to see a marine fossil or sedimentary rock at your feet, you'll know why (if you read the book).

As I read this book I had only one regret. I kept wishing I could see a movie that illustrates the string of events described here. I've seen short animations that trace a billion yeas of continental movement in a few minutes or so. That's not what I'm talking about here, though. I'm talking about an animated, narrated production, 45-60 minutes long, tracing the formation of the Pacific Northwest with as much detail as that given by Williams. Until the movie comes out, though, you'll have to read the book. Needless to say, this is one that I highly recommend. Happy reading!

Wonderful Simplicity.......2003-04-08

It isn't often one finds a simply written, slender volume
that covers this much ground (sorry). Williams uses analogy
and simple illustrations to present a smack-up-to-date
understanding of Pacific Northwest Geology. Best of all,
he does it in a way that draws the reader into the
scientific process -- the geologists in the submarines
exploring ocean vents and fairylike mineral castles,
or scrambling through brush looking for places where
the pattern of rocks changes dramatically very quickly,
or frustrated in their efforts to gain access to layers
deeply embedded in the earth that might help answer their questions.

From beaches in West Seattle, to tree rings underwater
in Lake Washington, Williams tells great stories of
the puzzles presented in the earth around us, and the
people who figure them out.

Geology of the Northwest for all readers.......2002-06-13

"The Restless Northwest" by Hill Williams is a well written commentary on those fundemental processes responsible for shaping our Pacific Northwest. Hill's straight-forward style of presenting technical subjects makes the book an excellent source of geologic information, particularly for the casual reader. His depth of understanding of complex processes and ability to explain them in a manner comprehensible to most readers is commendable. With numerous simple diagrams together with easily understood discussions, he has clearly explained such technical processes as plate tectonics, geologic terranes, the great floods from ancient Lake missoula and many others. Willams has a knack for accurately converting complex sientific data to a form well understood by the general public. I have read a number of books that attempt this challenge and in my opinion "The Restless Northwest, a geologic story" is one of the best of its kind.

Restless Northwest.......2002-04-16

Retired Seattle Times Science Writer Hill Williams has hit a home run with this book. His easy-to-read style takes the reader by the hand and leads him through the thousands of years of geologic upheaval that formed the breathtaking scenery in present day Washington, Idaho and Oregon.

Williams is intimately familiar with his subject matter, writing and researching the Northwest for nearly 40 years with the Times, and he passes this on the knowledge to the reader in a way that is easy to understand.

This is not a book for professional geologists, full of technical jargon. This book is written for anyone who has ever looked at Steamboat Rock, the rolling Palouse, the Columbia Gorge or the remains of Mt. St. Helens and said "Wow. I wonder how...."

As a lifelong resident of Washington, I have always known how incredibly special and beautiful this area was. Until I read Williams' book, however, I had no idea how this beauty was created. Page by page, it was revealed to me with easy to grasp explanations and illustrations. I would recommend this book very highly to all who consider themselves curious.

The Restless Sea: Exploring the World Beneath the Waves
Average customer rating:

fantastically informative

Get the new one with pictures

Stop global warming with a couple of iron freighters

A riveting ocean read

The Restless Sea

The Restless Sea: Exploring the World Beneath the Waves
Robert Kunzig
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Mapping the Deep: The Extraordinary Story of Ocean Science

ASIN: 0393045625

Amazon.com

The Restless Sea is an homage to marine-obsessed scientists. Discover editor Robert Kunzig lovingly describes pioneering oceanographers mapping the mountains and valleys of the sea floor, discovering strange ecosystems thriving in the abyssal deep, identifying strange new gelatinous zooplankton floating in the vast blue mid-ocean realm, finding out how marine food webs work, and (most depressingly) assessing the damage done by pollution and overfishing. Kunzig loves the sea, and he admires those who study its fringes, its surface, and its depths to figure out what makes it tick.

Part of Kunzig's purpose in writing the book is to highlight how little we actually know about the sea, especially now that we have the power to permanently damage it. We've got a lot to learn yet, but we've come a long way from the early oceanographers who had very little data to help them map the seafloor: "To say that they relied heavily on intuition in sketching the seafloor is to engage in euphemism: they made most of it up."

But the unknown represents opportunity and excitement for scientists. Kunzig clearly captures the thrill of discovery that makes otherwise sane people jump on boats and head out beyond sight of land, risking seasickness, numbing cold, and even death. Here he captures the moment when scientists realized for the first time that life existed down to the very bottom of the sea:

From the 150 pounds of grey, chalky mud, he and his collaborators sifted five species of mollusk, two species of echinoderm, an annelid worm or two, a sponge, numerous single-cell foraminiferans, and more.... Now the deep sea was, once and for all, alive; and the idea of an azoic zone anywhere on Earth's surface should have been dead, once and for all.

Kunzig's tour of the world's oceans and the scientists who study them is full of the joy of discovery. The Restless Sea makes you understand why a couple of echinoderms might be cause for a party. --Therese Littleton

Book Description

A vivid, up-to-date tour of the Earth's last frontier, a remote and mysterious realm that nonetheless lies close to the heart of even the most land-locked reader. The sea covers seven-tenths of the Earth, but we have mapped only a small percentage of it. The sea contains millions of species of animals and plants, but we have identified only a few thousand of them. The sea controls our planet's climate, but we do not really understand how. The sea is still the frontier, and yet it seems so familiar that we sometimes forget how little we know about it. Just as we are poised on the verge of exploiting the sea on an unprecedented scale-mining it, fertilizing it, fishing it out-this book reminds us of how much we have yet to learn. More than that, it chronicles the knowledge explosion that has transformed our view of the sea in just the past few decades, and made it a far more interesting and accessible place. From the Big Bang to that far-off future time, two billion years from now, when our planet will be a waterless rock; from the lush crowds of life at seafloor hot springs to the invisible, jewel-like plants that float at the sea surface; from the restless shifting of the tectonic plates to the majestic sweep of the ocean currents, Kunzig's clear and lyrical prose transports us to the ends of the Earth.

Customer Reviews:

fantastically informative.......2002-10-03

This novel is extremely well written and organized that it so allows the reader to absorb the tremendous amount of dazzling information being explored, yet not feeling overwhelmed.

Get the new one with pictures.......2001-06-09

Great book, however the new book, Mapping the deep, is the same book with pictures. The pictures are great to help understand what is being described instead of imagining it.

Stop global warming with a couple of iron freighters.......2001-01-05

Did you know that we could end 17% of the excess carbon dioxide that we generate every year to the bottom of the ocean? And do it by fertilizing the plankton with iron spread from a freighter? And that this has actually been tested by marine scientists? If not, read The Restless Sea and learn this plus dozens of other fun facts to know and tell. Kunzig is a kind writer. If a scientist has no personality, he writes about the science. If a scientist happens to be a truly warped human being, we get a paragraph or two about the warpage before Kunzig dives back into the science. If you hate James Gleick's endlessly tedious books (e.g., Chaos), you'll be refreshed by Kunzig's work.

A riveting ocean read.......2000-10-20

This well-written book attempts to show how little we know about the huge volume of our planet that lies beneath the surface layer of the ocean. Much of what we thought we knew has turned out to be wrong, and much of what we HAVE learned was discovered astonishingly recently---within the last generation in many cases. Also, Kunzig never lets you forget that the fascinating information we've gathered about undersea currents, say, or biological diversity at great depths, even ocean floor topology, is still sketchy and provisional. Rather than depressing, this is an exciting prospect, an adventure that is still in the early stages (and likely to remain so for some time, since undersea research gets hardly any funding). The only truly depressing part of the book, for me, is the account in chapter eight of the collapse (through overfishing) of the cod population off the coasts of New England and Newfoundland. In any case, Kunzig has the McPhee talent for highlighting the personalities of the scientists involved, but never loses sight of the underlying scientific issues. Also, I like how he begins, appropriately, with the water molecule and how the Earth got all it's water in the first place, then ends the book with how the planet may evenually lose it's water, billions of years hence. Nice symmetry there.

The Restless Sea.......2000-08-31

Absolutely the only uninteresting thing in this book is the title (which sounds like the title of a filmstrip you might have watched in school in about the sixth grade, back in the 60's.) It's a survey of what's known about the oceans, from their formation (the current thinking is that the water came from comets) and oceanography, what the engine is that keeps continental drift going (gravity), why jellyfish and so many other sea creatures are transparent (because underwater, there's no reason to waste resources on features like pigment) on and on and on, a wealth of information explained and described perfectly lucidly. He has a gift for writing very well, explaining technical information to the non-technical layman (I was a history major) as well as John McPhee ever could. It turns out that we have mapped the surface of Venus more accurately than the ocean floor.

So much of what I thought I knew about the ocean is wrong. Remember those relief maps you see, which show the continental shelf dropping off like the grand canyon into the abyss? Turns out that's not accurate, the continental shelf actually slopes at a very gentle rate, not as steep as the mountain passes the Tour de France racers climb. The maps exaggerate the slopes by a factor of ten, emphasizing the presence of the features over their accuracy.

There is so much information in here that I was feeling, as I approached the end of the book, that I should go back through and read it again, for all the stuff I missed.

The story isn't told in the first person plural, like a textbook, but rather is related through the stories of the scientists who made the discoveries. For instance, much of our current understanding of how continental drift works was done by a scientist heating a pan of paraffin in his kitchen. Because it's focuses on the stories of the scientists, it's a story as much about the development of science as about strict oceanography, how the limits of knowledge shift as our ability to ask questions and interpret the answers changes.

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