Investigates colossal ship-swallowing rogue waves and the surfers who seek them out. For centuries, mariners have spun tales of gargantuan waves, 100 feet high or taller. Until recently scientists dismissed these stories; waves that high would seem to violate the laws of physics. But in the past few decades, as a number of ships have vanished and new evidence has emerged, oceanographers realized something was brewing in the planet's waters. They found...

A Silent Spring for our era, this eloquent, urgent, fascinating book reveals how just 50 years of swift and dangerous oceanic change threatens the very existence of life on Earth. Legendary marine scientist Sylvia Earle portrays a planet teetering on the brink of irreversible environmental crisis. In recent decades we've learned more about the ocean than in all previous human history combined. But, even as our knowledge has exploded, so too has our...

"The oceans have always shaped human lives," writes marine biologist Helen Scales in her vibrant new book The Brilliant Abyss, but the surface and the very edges have so far mattered the most. "However, one way or another, the future ocean is the deep ocean." A golden era of deep-sea discovery is underway. Revolutionary studies in the deep are rewriting the very notion of life on Earth and the rules of what is possible. In the process, the abyss is...

For those with a curiosity about shores or a desire to better understand them, The Beach Book shares the basic science behind waves, tides, sea level, sand dunes, salt marshes, and beach erosion. It tells sunbathers why the beach widens and narrows from week to week and helps boaters and anglers understand why tidal inlets change. It gives home buyers insight into gauging erosion rates and provides natural-resource managers and concerned citizens...

The Earth's climate is already warming due to increased concentrations of human-produced greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and the specter of rising sea level is one of global warming's most far-reaching threats. Sea level will keep rising long after greenhouse gas emissions have ceased, because of the delay in penetration of surface warming to the ocean depths and because of the slow dissipation of excess atmospheric carbon dioxide. Adopting a...

"An informative and utterly beautiful introduction to the ocean, this book brings the riches of the marine world onto the printed page, from plankton to the great whales, seaweed to starfish. Astounding photography and clear illustrations reveal an abundance of life, from coral reefs and mangrove swamps to deep ocean trenches."--Back cover.

Examines the ecological and historical significance of the harbor and what it can bring to future residents. Stony Brook Harbor, or Three Sisters Harbor as it was known historically, is perhaps the most pristine of the Long Island north shore pocket bays. Untouched by major commercialization, it has been designated a Significant Coastal Fish and Wildlife Habitat by the New York State Department of State and a Significant Coastal Habitat by the US...

There are few fields of science that carbon-14 has not touched. A radioactive isotope of carbon, it stands out for its unusually long half-life. Best known for its application to estimating the age of artifacts-carbon dating-carbon-14 helped reveal new chronologies of human civilization and geological time. Everything containing carbon, the basis of all life, could be placed in time according to the clock of radioactive decay, with research applications...