The Silent Landscape: The Scientific Voyage of HMS Challenger - Softcover

Corfield, Richard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0309095093 ISBN 13: 9780309095099

Publisher: Joseph Henry Press, 2003

Synopsis

In 1872 HMS Challenger set sail from Portsmouth, England, to map and sample the ocean floor. This marked the birth of modern oceanography. By retracing Challenger’s extraordinary voyage, we view our underwater landscape anew â€" focusing on what 21st century science is now able to add to this incredible story.

The oceans make up more than two thirds of the Earth’s surface. But they are as mysterious for what they conceal beneath their surfaces as they are familiar for their ubiquity. Deep below the susurrus swell of waves lies an alien world that we have only begun to explore. The quest to know more about this secret domain began in earnest in the late 1800s. In 1859, Charles Darwin’s book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection set the scientific world abuzz with its radical theory of evolution, and sparked a feverish desire to know more about the workings of nature. Scientists became increasingly convinced that the ocean floor could provide proof â€" or refutation â€" of Darwin’s theory of natural selection. They believed that the ocean floor was a haven for life that had long been extinct on land and that obscure fossil evidence culled from the depths could provide us with information on species that no longer existed topside. So an expedition was specifically designed and undertaken to investigate the natural history and geology of the ocean floor. With its emphasis on locating and retrieving fossil records that would test the new theory of evolution, Challenger’s voyage was nothing less than a mission to choose between God and science.

Sailing three and half years and 69,000 nautical miles through burning tropical heat waves and stupefyingly cold Antarctic seas, and suffering further privations of hunger, storms, and sometimes crushing boredom between data-collecting surveys, Challenger dredged up thousands of samples from the sea floor and mapped enormous areas of undersea terrain. The final result was nothing short of a roaring success. So extensive were their findings that it was to take the scientists 19 years to completely examine and report on all their data. The final report, published in 1895, ran to fifty volumes. Most startling of all was the revelation that the ocean was not a silent landscape that serenely reflected Earth’s past â€" it was a gloriously vibrant ecosystem teeming with a variety and multitude of life on a scale we could scarcely imagine from our landlocked perspective.

Relying on the official documentation, logs, and journals of the ship’s company, The Silent Landscape recounts the tale of an extraordinary voyage brought to life by 21st-century science. From the endangered coral reefs of the Caribbean to the trackless depths beneath the western Pacific, The Silent Landscape takes us on an epic journey across time.

Table of Contents

• Front Matter
• Threshold of the Deep
• The Desert Under the Sea
• The Restless Earth
• Kingdoms of Mud and Lime
• Climate Triggers and Bermudan Secrets
• Kelp and Cold Light
• The Library of Time
• The Grim Latitudes
• The Lost World
• The Echoes of Evolution
• The Groaning Planet
• Dreams of Big Science
• Epilogue
• Acknowledgements
• Further Reading
• Index

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

"Richard Corfield's book is a brilliant account of the fascinating voyage of HMS Challenger and her pioneering crew. It will captivate anyone interested in the real life adventures of science and exploration."
-- Philippe Cousteau, president of the Philippe Cousteau Foundation

"The Silent Landscape is a journey full of mishaps and tragedy, but also of wonder. Corfield provides glimpses of sheer beauty, as on the night when Challenger cuts an arc of light through the equatorial Atlantic, the ship's hull igniting the natural bioluminescence of billions of single-celled plants. Tapping his own deep knowledge of oceans and the research of today's oceanographers--including scientists aboard the ship's modern-day doppelganger, the GLOMAR Challenger--Corfield explains this 'cold light' and many other phenomena, in the process revealing how the voyage of HMS Challenger shaped the course of scientific research for over a century."
-- Erik Larson, author of The Devil in the White City

"When HMS Challenger set out in 1872 to map and analyze the ocean floor none of its crew knew how long they'd be gone or if indeed they'd ever return. Richard Corfield has brought their story to the surface in a riveting account that blends pure science with sheer adventure."
-- Sherry Sontag, co-author of Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage

"One hundred years to the day that HMS Challenger left Portsmouth, the Apollo 17 crew returned home after the Lunar Module Challenger had supported the 20th Century's last scientific exploration of the Moon's surface. The Silent Landscape adds a strong note of optimism that another "Challenger" will soon begin the scientific exploration of the Martian surface. And so what HMS Challenger started, continues."
-- Harrison H. Schmitt, Apollo 17 Astronaut and former U.S. Senator (NM)

"The Silent Landscape is a fascinating journey through space and time. Corfield skilfully weaves together the story of the voyage of HMS Challenger with a wide-ranging history of oceanography. Written with the authentic voice of experience, it contains a wealth of intriguing detail."
-- David Sington, director of the acclaimed BBC-TV series Earth Story

About the Author:

Richard Corfield

About this edition

• Publisher: Joseph Henry Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0309095093
• ISBN 13: 9780309095099
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 300