The Silent Landscape : In the Wake of Hms 'Challenger' 1872-1876 - Softcover

Richard Corfield

3.78

54 ratings by Goodreads

9780719565311: The Silent Landscape : In the Wake of Hms 'Challenger' 1872-1876

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0719565316 ISBN 13: 9780719565311

Publisher: John Murray Publishers Ltd, 2005

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Deep below the oceans' surface lies an alien world that even today we have only just begun to explore. The quest to understand the seabed began in 1872 when HMS Challenger set sail from Portsmouth on the first sea voyage devoted to science. Sailing for three and half years and almost 69,000 nautical miles, scientists and crew alike braved the stifling heat of the tropics for months on end only to suffer the stupefying cold of the Antarctic, enduring danger on the high seas, risking all in the pursuit of knowledge. The undertaking was nothing short of a roaring success. Challenger dredged up thousands of samples from the sea floor while mapping enormous areas of undersea terrain. Most startling of all was the revelation that the ocean was not a barren graveyard, but a gloriously complex ecosystem teeming with life.One of the expedition's most important objectives was to gather the evidence necessary to prove, or refute, Darwin's new theory of evolution. Drawing from official documentation and the journals of the ship's scientists and crew, The Silent Landscape recounts the story of this extraordinary voyage. But Richard Corfield also brings a twenty-first century perspective to bear on Challenger's research and discoveries, illuminating the science of that nineteenth century voyage with the most current oceanographic information available.

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About the Author:

Richard Corfield is an earth scientist based at Oxford University. Educated at Bristol and Cambridge Universities, he is a regular feature writer for popular magazines in the natural sciences. The Silent Landscape is his second book. He lives in Oxfordshire, with his wife and two children.

Review:

'A fascinating journey through space and time... Written with the authentic voice of experience, it contains a wealth of intriguing detail' -- David Sington, director of the BBC series Earth St 'A brilliant account of the fascinating voyage of HMS Challenger and her pioneering crew. It will captivate anyone interested in the real life adventures of science and exploration.' -- Philippe Cousteau 'This is an authoritative book on its subject -- comprehensive, witty and accessible without an over-subservience to popularism. Highly recommended reading on science' -- Word on Books 'An extraordinary book about the ocean floor ... It is the particular charm of The Silent Landscape that the wads of pure science can never quite bury what is a fascinating story, and a new one. One side of this book is a scientific treatise, the other is the history of the first truly modern attempt to gather data and check theories about the "silent landscape" of the oceanic floor, an historic first' -- The Washington Times 'Corfield buttresses the Challenger account with related tales...giving us some insight into what else might have been uncovered had more modern technology been on the Scientifics' side'. -- Literary Review 20050401 'Corfield writes with the insight that comes from personal experience in research at sea ... outstanding.' Richard Shelton. -- Times Literary Supplement 20050225

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