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Informationen zum Autor James Lawrence Powell Klappentext "This book tells the story of how scientific ocean drilling, a crowning achievement of science and engineering in the 20th century, transformed our understanding of Earth's history"-- Zusammenfassung A groundbreaking chronicle of scientific ocean drilling—a crowning achievement of the twentieth century—and how it shaped our knowledge of Earth's past. Under the radar—or, rather, sonar—of most people and many scientists, for the last six decades ships have plied the world’s oceans, mining the seafloor for its secrets—and quietly resolving confounding geological mysteries. Continental drift and plate tectonics. The origin of the Hawai?ian Islands. The erstwhile disappearance of the Mediterranean. The mystery of the ice ages. All are part of the story told by deep-sea drilling—and chapters in the history that unfolds in Mysteries of the Deep . In a series of vignettes ranging from the voyage of the HMS Challenger in the 1870s to the adventures of research ship Chikyu in the 2020s, James Powell recounts the surprises the seafloor has yielded to the probing of scientists. With a global, sometimes even extraterrestrial scope and a scientific reach that extends to every corner of geology and astrobiology, Powell’s work recounts how cores extracted from the ocean floor have: · produced insights into microbial life on Mars and the end of dinosaurs’ tenure on Earth · demonstrated that astronomical cycles control many geological events, and even human evolution · used a past episode of global warming to reveal the peril of high temperatures today · shown that global warming could melt enough Antarctic ice to drown the seacoasts The mysteries uncovered by deep-sea drilling, and covered by Powell in this eye-opening book, are many and various, often surprising and sometimes alarming—consequential not just for the science of the seafloor, but for how we learn about our planet's past and what we can do about its future. Inhaltsverzeichnis Contents 1 Introduction 1 2 The Voyage of HMS Challenger 7 3 Coral Reefs: Rainforests of the Sea 23 4 Probing the Seafloor 33 5 Nothing Beats a Map 53 6 Do Seafloors Spread and Continents Drift? 65 7 Continental Drift to Plate Tectonics 77 8 Hotspots in the Mantle 97 9 When the Mediterranean Dried Up 113 10 The Glacial Theory 129 11 The Astronomical Pacemaker 143 12 Astrochronology 157 13 Crater of Doom 171 14 The Hot, Deep Biosphere 187 15 The Seventh Continent 199 16 Eocene Doomsday 209 17 Human Evolution 219 18 Looking Back and Ahead 231 Appendix: Vessels and Programs 239 Acknowledgments 241 Notes 243 Index 263...
