Read more
Informationen zum Autor Nico Medina is the author of Where Is Mount Everest? and Where Is Alcatraz? and three books in the Who Was...? series. Klappentext In this Where Is? title, kids can explore the Great Barrier Reef-big enough to be seen from space but made up of billions of tiny living organisms. The Great Barrier Reef, off the coast of Australia, is the world's largest coral reef system. Stretching more than 1,400 miles, it provides a home to a wide diversity of creatures. Designated a World Heritage Site, the reef is suffering from the effects of climate change but this fascinating book shows this spectacular part of our planet. Where is the Great Barrier Reef? August 26, 1768 The HMS Endeavour , under the command of Captain James Cook, set sail from England. The British Royal Navy, and a scientific group called the Royal Society of London, were sending Cook halfway across the globe—to the South Pacific island of Tahiti. Why? With an astronomer and other scientists, Cook was to record the passage of the planet Venus across the face of the sun. They would compare their measurements to measurements other astronomers were taking around the world. This would help them figure out the distance between the earth and the sun. Months later, in June 1769, the work in Tahiti was done. But Captain Cook was not going home. Not yet. He had been given a sealed letter before he left England. Now he could open it. The letter contained a set of orders for a second mission—a secret mission. Cook was to sail from Tahiti to a place known only as Terra Australis Incognita . This is Latin for “Unknown South Land.” Today, we call it Australia. Forty-year-old Captain Cook was a very experienced sailor and explorer. The British Royal Navy wanted him to explore Australia’s east coast. No European had ever seen this land. On April 19, 1770, the Endeavour reached this part of Australia. Cook later named it New South Wales and claimed it for England. Captain Cook continued north along the coast. He didn’t know he was about to make another great discovery—a dangerous discovery. Late on June 11, under a bright moon, the Endeavour crashed into something rock solid! The ship became stuck! Cook and his crew were twelve miles from shore. They tried to move the ship back into deep water by lightening the ship’s load. They threw as much as fifty tons of cannons, coal, and cargo overboard. They waited until morning, hoping that the high tide would lift the ship. But it stayed stuck. A leak sprung. Water poured into the ship. For the next twelve hours, the men scrambled to save their ship. They took turns at the pumps, trying to push seawater out as fast as it poured in. One sailor filled a canvas sail with wool and sheep’s dung and used it to help plug the leak. Around ten o’clock that night, high tide arrived again. The crew was able to guide the Endeavour off its rocky ledge and back into deep water. They were saved! This “rocky ledge,” however, was not actually rock at all. It was a coral reef. Coral is made up of millions of tiny animals called polyps (PAWL-lups). This coral reef was one of three thousand reefs that make up the Great Barrier Reef. For more than six weeks, Captain Cook and his crew repaired the Endeavour onshore. More than two months after the crash, Cook was finally able to steer the ship through the Reef and out into the open ocean. Captain Cook’s “discovery” of the Great Barrier Reef was only the beginning. Ever since, this miracle of nature has captured the imagination of explorers, scientists, and tourists alike. Today, more than a million people visit the Great Barrier Reef each year. And we’ve only just begun to understand it. Chapter 1 : Islands from Hillt...
