Upheaval from the abyss : ocean floor mapping and the Earth science /

Lawrence's first book is a sleeper; if he continues on track he could join the ranks of elite science writers like Stephen J. Gould in geology and evolution and Jared Diamond in anthropology. Lawrence has their breadth of interest, critical eye for unexpected details, and contagious passion for his subjects. He weaves obscure historical and biographical details into a fascinating exploration of what might otherwise be straightforward science. The book begins unexpectedly, describing the death of pioneering German scientist Alfred Wegener while trying to save men stranded on an expedition to measure the thickness of the Greenland ice cap. So gripping and detailed was this story that it read like a biography--but what had it to do with ocean floor mapping? The next section on Wegener's highly controversial development of the continental drift theory offered a clue to Lawrence's style of providing unconventional and unexpected detail. Building on the idea that the discovery of the movement of the continents ranks among the greatest scientific developments of all time, Lawrence points out that the Wegener concept had been all but discarded when magnetic sea floor mapping in the 1960s dramatically revealed that the sea floor was being continuously renewed from ocean ridges. Distinctive historical photographs. De rigueur for ocean scientists; recommended to everyone. All levels. F. T. Manheim SUNY at Stony Brook