Description
Book SynopsisThe deep oceans are the last great frontier on earth. Not long ago, scientists viewed the ocean floor as a vast, featureless plain. This text spans a 130-year period, covering the efforts to map the depths and culminating in the publication of the first map of the ocean's floor in 1977.
Trade ReviewLawrence captures the excitement of the new idea, and gives at least a flavour of how great an upset it caused. . . . The book is not merely a good story, but also has messages for science at large. . . . This book is a good read, and raises interesting questions concerning not merely plate tectonics, but the conduct of science in general. * SoC Bulletin *
Upheaval from the Abyss is a popular retelling of the emergence of the theory of plate tectonics. It is written in layman's language and tells almost as much about the lives of the major players as it does about the revolution in human knowledge that they achieved. . . . For anyone still not familiar with the multifaceted story of how this discovery came about, I cannot think of a better place to begin. I lived through these times. As a program director then at the National Science Foundation, I worked with many of the key scientists involved. But when I read
Upheaval from the Abyss, I still found much that was new to me. -- Edward Davin * Geotimes *
Lawrence summarizes a huge amount of information, biographical and scientific, to make this one journey understandable and readable for the average person. . . . He never talks down to his readers. * Post and Courier *
Back in 1873àscientists didnÆt even know how deep the oceans were, let alone how they originated, or what made up their floors. The geologists and geophysicists who answered those questions created our modern, plate-tectonic world view. This enjoyable book is their story. * NewScientist.com *
Table of ContentsTales of mystery and imagination
and hard work
Death on a glacier
Radical notions
Sowing the wind
Reaping the whirlwind
The pathfinder
The abyss
Challenger
Titanic effect
The swinger
Wildcatter
A rumor or war
and the real thing
Gunfire and geology
The upstarts
Vema
The gully
Shaken
and stirred
The paleomagicians
Revelation
Revolution
Alpine vistas to abyssal plains
Summing up
