Ocean

Reflections on a Century of Exploration

Wolf H. Berger

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9780520247789
• eBook ISBN: 9780520942547
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• Subtopic: Ecology

The past one hundred years of ocean science have been distinguished by dramatic milestones, remarkable discoveries, and major revelations. This book is a clear and lively survey of many of these amazing findings. Beginning with a brief review of the elements that define what the ocean is and how it works—from plate tectonics to the thermocline and the life within it—Wolf H. Berger places current understanding in the context of history. Essays treat such topics as beach processes and coral reefs, the great ocean currents off the East and West Coasts, the productivity of the sea, and the geologic revolution that changed all knowledge of the earth in the twentieth century.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• Foreword
• Introduction
• 1. Discovering the Ocean
• 2. A Portrit of the Ocean Planet
• 3. Life at the Edge of a Fertile Sea
• 4. Of Coral Reefs and Atolls
• 5. The Zen of the Beach
• 6. Unraveling the Gulf Stream Puzzle
• 7. Sardines and the California Current
• 8. Meadows and Deserts of the Sea
• 9. Of Whales and Sharks and Giant Squid
• 10. The Deep, the Cold, the Dark
• 11. Seeing in the Dark
• 12. Mountains, Trenches, Sunken Islands
• 13. The Ocean's Memory of the Ice Ages
• 14. Abyssal Memories
• 15. Global Warming and the Ocean
• Epilogue
• Appendix One
• Appendix Two
• Appendix Three
• Appendix Four
• Appendix Five
• Figure Sources and References
• Index