The Oceans

by Ellen Prager, Sylvia A. Earle

"[An] absorbing survey of oceanography . . . [this] elegant study is an excellent resource."­­Publishers Weekly A fascinating examination of the earth's oceans This exhaustive overview of oceanography captures the excitement of discovery in the making. The Oceans opens up the world of ocean science to the general reader and raises significant questions about the future of the ancient, nurturing ocean itself. The oceans cover more than 70 percent of the globe, yet less than 5 percent of that expanse has been explored. But, as Drs. Prager and Earle show in this vivid survey of ocean research, our knowledge is suddenly various dives, soundings, computer analyses, and other probes are uncovering amazing facts about the 142 million square miles beneath the seas.

Genres: Science, Science Nature, Biology, Geology, Natural History, Environment, Nonfiction

336 pages, Paperback

First published April 7, 2000

Reviews

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

it was a pleasant surprise... my husband brought it home for me, from the library... i was really impressed that this book appears to be a "cliff notes" of the textbook i am using in my Oceanography class, that i am currently taking...

granted, it is missing a lot of the information that the textbook is *dragging* us through, BUT i still think this is a great book for someone who is entirely new to this subject, and needs to get a general understanding of the topic, before they take the next step and make themselves dig (dive?) a little deeper...

[Issy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best oceanography primer ever. Although I really wish they would update it as a lot has happened in 10 years. This may not seem like everyone's idea of a good read but it was not written like a text book. I found myself exclaiming and bothering those around me with interesting factoids about every other page. The ocean is fascinating stuff.

[Lorenzo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un verdadero viaje por los océanos del mundo, desde los primero que se formaron hace miles de millones de años, hasta los actuales. El libro está sólidamente basado en la ciencia y ofrece un fascinante vistazo a los mares, sus características y los seres vivos que los habitan.

Por tener más de 20 años de publicado, naturalmente está escaso en la ciencia del cambio climático, solo tocando brevemente en lo poco que conocíamos en aquel entonces de este tema.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book that acts as a bite-sized textbook to give an overview of almost everything there is to know about the oceans. Though published in 1999, it is still shockingly relevant today.

[Kari · Rating 3 out of 5]

Outdated but competent

[Maggie Singman · Rating 5 out of 5]

(De la estanteria del campamento Cabuyal*)

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seventy percent of the Earth's surface is covered in water, constituting a vast and largely unknown world of its own -- vitally important to ours, but scarcely explored and barely understood. Beneath the placid (but sometimes storm-tossed) surface lay valley with depths that have never been plumbed; volcanic mountains; great beasts whose size staggers the imagination, and creatures so bizarre that they could just as easily hail from another world. The Oceans is a brief but substantial introduction to this fascinating and vitally important element of our planet.

Life began in the oceans, albeit in very different waters from the ones we delight in today. Prager opens the book with a history of 'evolution's drama', following the growth and divergence of life through th Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras, ending with our own Cenozoic. The oceans have been home to a marvelous variety of life throughout the ages, and the authors devote the rest of the book to understanding the current oceanic environment, examine its chemical, geologic, and biological aspects in turn. Even those of us who don't live near a coast experience the ocean's effects on our lives, through weather; a separate section covers hurricanes, monsoons, El Niño effects, sea level changes, and the increasing impact of global warming. Given how much of our economies -- indeed, planetary life itself -- depends on the health of the seas, an understanding of them is crucial, especially for those in political and economic leadership. Unfortunately, humans -- not known for being the most farsighted of creatures -- have been steadily destroying that environment for decades. In "A Once-Bountiful Sea", the authors examine the kinds of damage being done, but offer some encouragement in the fact that some governments are taking the issue seriously, if only out of economic reality and not out of concern for the global environment. The final chapter looks to the future of oceanography, for what we know is dwarfed by what we don't; only 95% of the ocean have been explored. The best is yet to come.

While the subject is fascinating by itself, and utterly relevant, Ellen Prager also proves to be an excellent guide through the oceans, not drowning the reader in details but still delivering depth. She proves talented at explaining fundamental processes in a lucid way -- for instance, showing how waves worth. She's the author of several other books (Sex, Drugs, and Sea Slime: the Ocean's Oddest Creatures and Why They Matter; Furious Earth: the Science and Nature of Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and Tsunamis, among others), and I'll definitely be looking into them in the future.

[Jack Dixon · Rating 4 out of 5]

In The Oceans By Ellen Prager, she writes how the oceans on earth have impacted how are planet lives with natural and biological life once came from the ocean in the process of evolution. The book goes through steps almost like a checklist, that explains how life began in the most abundant material on the surface of the earth.
In the first couple chapters it explains how the wondrous element of water came to be, from a comet of frozen water. Once the ice melted the ocean began to form and very cruel weather started to occur. Then, as bacteria started to form in the water, the single-celled organisms began to have their instincts tell them to look for food, and eventually adapted to the environment to survive longer and reproduce more often. Once evolution started to take place the bacteria adapted into small fish that prayed on others, or fed on plants.
When the quest for food became too scarce, and few evolved to eat other things like small plants and/or animals like snails or crab. When more species started get used to this new ability they were born with lungs instead of gills and permanently adapted to life on land. This book has us look at a supposed cradle of life and how much more important water is.

[Coltrane Bodbyl-Mast · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Oceans, By Ellen J. Prager and Sylvia A. Earle, fails at trying to make things relating to weather in the oceans exciting, although I do enjoy reading about marine species, This book was very much mundane, like a sandwich that tastes terrible, but in that sandwich, there is some delicious cheese inside, such as information about the phantom zone, or metaphors that make you think.

The Oceans at first begins by telling the tale of the evolution of animals in the oceans, and how they became what they are today. Then it begins to discuss the weather and what effects it has on us and how it relates to the oceans. Next and finally, it discusses how technology is helping us discover the oceans, including how military subs discovered a realm beyond the imagination of man.

Anyone who is interested in marine biology should read The Oceans. The book is mostly boring, and can be tedious to read through, but you will find nuggets of information, in the piles upon piles of words. Anyone who is interested in the oceans in general may like this read, but be warned, it is pretty boring.

[Sean Alesi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this because I was bored and wanted to dive into a subject I knew nothing about. You become an ocean environmentalist after reading this. Very informative and very interesting; I honestly had no idea there was so much to the oceans.

[Zach · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an old friend. I spent a lot of hours reading it while at anchor with biologists, It was great for perspective at the time, and helped me transition from a deck ape to an ocean enthusiast!

[Clare · Rating 3 out of 5]

My review is here: http://www.learntodivetoday.co.za/blo...

[Brandi Snell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good overview of Oceanography, and related sciences. Warns about pollution and over fishing.

[Emma Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Factual, just took ages to read. Could've possibly made it more engaging

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book on how it ALL started.

[Tex]

So far, very interesting! I sort of expected a textbook format, but this is much less dry.