(IMG) Rainbow in Yachats
       
       The Sea Around Us by Rachel Carson
       
       Non-fiction book review written May 14, 2011
       
       To me the writing seemed similar to John Muir's writing.  The prefa
       said that the author took the back seat, letting the subject take t
       center of attention.  That may be so, but the author's enthusiasm
       shows.  I think she viewed the mysterious as an opportunity, rather
       than as a limitation.
       
       The topic is literally large, so the book may as well be about the
       history of the universe.  It does touch on geology and the formatio
       of our planet and solar system.  Early in the book, she wrote that 
       earth was formed out of solar material, and it has barely cooled si
       then.  I remember the idea that the crust is a thin skin floating o
       molten interior, but I did not think that molten interior was anywh
       near star temperature.  It gives me new respect for the concept of
       geothermal energy.  We still believe that the core of the earth has
       temperature similar to the surface of the sun.
       
 (TXT) Inner core
       
       One of my high school English teachers mentioned many phenomena tha
       are described in this book, and coincidentally gave us a reading li
       that includes this book.  I can remember my teacher describing the 
       of Fundy and the forces that shape its tides.  Reading the example
       again, I wondered whether the name had to do with waveform
       fundamentals and harmonics, but the name seems to be a coincidence.
       
       The research is impressive.  There were too many details to retain.
       The most interesting detail to me is the history of our learning.
       This book was written before geologists had consensus about plate
       tectonics.  I also thought it was neat that someone wrote about
       "climate change" as far back as 1912.
       
           "From this germ of an idea, Pettersson's fertile mind evolved a
       theory of climatic variation, which he set forth in 1912 in an
       extraordinarily interesting document called "Climatic Variations in
       Historic and Prehistoric Time." (Svenska Hydrog.==Biol. Komm.
       Skrifter, No. 5, 1912.)  "Marshalling scientific, historic, and
       literary evidence, he showed that there are alternating periods of
       mild and severe climates which correspond to the long-period cycles
       of the oceanic tides."
       
       The afterword mentions Milankovitch, who also broke ground on this
       subject.
       
 (TXT) Milankovitch cycles
       
        title: The Sea Around Us
        author: Carson, Rachel, 1907-1964
        LOC: GC21 .C32
        rating: 4
 (TXT)  detail: Rachel Carson
       
 (DIR) BenCollver - Phlog
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