The adventure under our feet
The Silent Landscape
Richard Corfield
Joseph Henry Press, $24.95
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In December 1872, HMS Challenger steamed out of Portsmouth, England, on an epic four-year circumnavigation of the globe, armed with a mandate to reveal the mysteries of the silent landscape beneath her fragile keel.
Drawing upon diaries of both the “scientifics” and the humble “bluejackets” below decks, Corfield augments his tale of Challenger’s research with 20th century developments in oceanography, biology, physics and paleontology. Discoveries abound. We deconstruct the riddle of the Bermuda Triangle and the kelp-choked Sargasso Sea, decode the messages of bioluminescent deep-sea denizens and unravel clues to Earth’s “library of time” locked in the fossil-rich ooze of abyssal sediments.
Modern studies of volcanism, continental drift, tectonic plates and global warming -- today’s hot Big Science -- derive from the groundwork laid by a handful of dedicated men aboard a small sailing ship named Challenger, proving that exploring natural science may be the grandest adventure of all.
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Susan Dworski
