Upheaval from the Abyss: Ocean Floor Mapping and the Earth Science Revolution

by David M. Lawrence

Book Overview

The deep oceans are the last great frontier remaining on Earth. Humans have conquered the vast wilderness of the terrestrial surface, from the searing deserts and dark forests of the tropics to the icy polar regions. Today, anyone with enough ambition and money can travel upriver into the heart of the Borneo jungle, climb Mount Everest, or spend the night at the South Pole. But the oceans beyond the continental shelves remain forbidding, beyond...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813530288
• ISBN13: 9780813530284
• Release Date: February 2002
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Answers From The Abyss

When I teach plate tectonics to my high school students, I ask them to consider the difficulty of building a comprehensive theory of the surface of the Earth when you don't know what three quarters of that surface looks like. I also mention how amazing it is that Alfred Wegener got as far as he did with continental drift without the detailed knowledge of the sea-floor that led to the modern theory of plate tectonics. David Lawrence has done a supremely good job at telling the adventurous and exciting history of plate tectonics in his book Upheaval From The Abyss. This book has got it all: ships, submarines, sonar, scientific [and emotional] arguments, sea-floor spreading, subduction, explosives and so much more. I highly recommend this book for anyone wanting to go deeper into the history of plate tectonics than does the standard cardboard cutout version found in most textbooks, and especially for those interested laypeople not ready to dive into Naomi Oreskes' excellent, but highly detailed The Rejection Of Continental Drift. I really enjoyed Upheaval From The Abyss and feel that others will, too.