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# 2016-11-22 - The Sea Around Us by Rachel Carson
Rainbow in Yachats
Non-fiction book review written May 14, 2011
To me the writing seemed similar to John Muir's writing. The preface
said that the author took the back seat, letting the subject take the
center of attention. That may be so, but the author's enthusiasm
shows. I think she viewed the mysterious as an opportunity, rather
than as a limitation.
The topic is literally large, so the book may as well be about the
history of the universe. It does touch on geology and the formation
of our planet and solar system. Early in the book, she wrote that
the earth was formed out of solar material, and it has barely cooled
since then. I remember the idea that the crust is a thin skin
floating on a molten interior, but I did not think that molten
interior was anywhere near star temperature. It gives me new respect
for the concept of geothermal energy. We still believe that the core
of the earth has a temperature similar to the surface of the sun.
Inner core @Wikipedia
One of my high school English teachers mentioned many phenomena that
are described in this book, and coincidentally gave us a reading list
that includes this book. I can remember my teacher describing the
Bay of Fundy and the forces that shape its tides. Reading the
example again, I wondered whether the name had to do with waveform
fundamentals and harmonics, but the name seems to be a coincidence.
The research is impressive. There were too many details to retain.
The most interesting detail to me is the history of our learning.
This book was written before geologists had consensus about plate
tectonics. I also thought it was neat that someone wrote about
"climate change" as far back as 1912.
"From this germ of an idea, Pettersson's fertile mind evolved a
theory of climatic variation, which he set forth in 1912 in an
extraordinarily interesting document called "Climatic Variations in
Historic and Prehistoric Time." (Svenska Hydrog.==Biol. Komm.
Skrifter, No. 5, 1912.) "Marshalling scientific, historic, and
literary evidence, he showed that there are alternating periods of
mild and severe climates which correspond to the long-period cycles
of the oceanic tides."
The afterword mentions Milankovitch, who also broke ground on this
subject.
Milankovitch cycles @Wikipedia
author: Carson, Rachel, 1907-1964
detail: gopher://gopherpedia.com/0/Rachel_Carson
LOC: GC21 .C32
tags: book,non-fiction,outdoor,science
title: The Sea Around Us
# Tags
book
non-fiction
outdoor
science
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