(TXT) View source
       
       # 2016-11-22 - The Sea Around Us by Rachel Carson
       
 (IMG) 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.
       
 (TXT) 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.
       
 (TXT) Milankovitch cycles @Wikipedia
       
       author: Carson, Rachel, 1907-1964
 (TXT) detail: gopher://gopherpedia.com/0/Rachel_Carson
       LOC:    GC21 .C32
       tags:   book,non-fiction,outdoor,science
       title:  The Sea Around Us
       
       # Tags
       
 (DIR) book
 (DIR) non-fiction
 (DIR) outdoor
 (DIR) science