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Smithsonian Visual Encyclopedia
Ocean: A Visual Encyclopedia
A stunning visual encyclopedia for kids, packed with stunning photography and amazing facts on every aspect of ocean life. From the Arctic to the Caribbean, tiny plankton to giant whales, sandy beaches to the deepest depths, our oceans are brought to life with astonishing images, simple, stylish graphics, and crystal-clear text explanations in Ocean: A Visual Encyclopedia.
DK's Visual Encyclopedias are the first substantial series of encyclopedias aimed at young children, designed to excite and entertain, while offering a comprehensive overview of core subjects. From science and the human body to animals, ocean, space, and more, each book combines fun facts, amazing pictures, and crystal-clear explanations to take kids into the wonders of our world.
DK's Visual Encyclopedias are the first substantial series of encyclopedias aimed at young children, designed to excite and entertain, while offering a comprehensive overview of core subjects. From science and the human body to animals, ocean, space, and more, each book combines fun facts, amazing pictures, and crystal-clear explanations to take kids into the wonders of our world.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published July 21, 2015
29 people are currently reading
189 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
September 29, 2019
This book is a great introduction to marine biology and oceanography for kids. It's lavishly illustrated with beautiful photographs. After reading this, you'll want to go scuba diving.
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August 2, 2019First the book called Atlas of the Oceans has a brief section on each of the oceans of the world (Arctic, Atlantic, Inddian, Pacific and Southern)
Next the book discusses has a Section called Blue Planet which covers a diversity of subjects including how oceans are formed, the ocean floor, plate tectonics, the ring of fire in the pacific, tsunamis, ocean storms, the water cycle, oceanic winds (or the standard ways air moves over oceans and doldrum areas with out winds) and currents among other topics. Some items I found as interesting facts included descriptions of hotspots which are when "plates of oceanic crust are moving slowly over extra-hot parts of the mantle called hotspots. Each hotspot creates a volcano in the moving crust. Once the volcano moves off the hotspot, it becomes extinct, and a new volcano erupts in its place. Over millions of years, this process creates a chain of islands." Examples are Hawaii, Galapagos and Easter Island. Iceland is an island over a spreading rift so since it is not moving it doesn't create an island chain. The book explains that continental shelves are not the deep ocean floor but rather the flooded edge of a continent cut away by wave erosion and that the continental shelf around Scandinavia extends almost up to the North Pole. That rocks that were original part of sea floors now can be found quite high up on dry land including at the top of Everest. That sound waves travel faster underwater than they do in air and that the deeper you go, the faster they travel. A pistol shrimp uses that power of sound to kill prey with a quick snap shut of its claws.
The next section is called The Open Ocean which covers the various ocean depth zones, jelly fish, the food chain, schools of fish, sharks, whales, dolphins, ocean birds and those animals which live at the bottom of the ocean. Some interesting facts in this section was that dolphins were identified as a type of whale, specifically a tooth-whale. Additionally this was interesting on why the warm tropical water is so clear "In the tropics where the warm surface water rarely mixes with the colder water below it, the boundary between the two is called the thermocline. In open tropical oceans the thermocline usually stops dissolved minerals reaching the sunlit surface water, where they would encourage the growth of microscopic plankton. As a result, there is very little plankton in most tropical seas. This is why the water is crystal clear. In cooler seas, the thermocline breaks down in winter, allowing nutrients to fuel plankton growth."
Another interesting fact "The colder the water, the more oxygen it has. But deep in the twilight zone, there is a region where most of the oxygen has been used up by bacteria feeding on dead plankton sinking from above."
The next section is called Shallow Seas and has sections on seaweed, kelp forests, sea otters, sea snails and clams, squid, octopuses, lobsters, crabs, starfish, sea urchins and sea cucumbers, coral reefs including the Great Barrier Reef and atolls and lagoons among other topics.
The next section is about Coast and Seashore
The next section is about the polar seas
And the final section is about human interaction with the oceans.
Very good book with a lot of spectacular pictures.
Next the book discusses has a Section called Blue Planet which covers a diversity of subjects including how oceans are formed, the ocean floor, plate tectonics, the ring of fire in the pacific, tsunamis, ocean storms, the water cycle, oceanic winds (or the standard ways air moves over oceans and doldrum areas with out winds) and currents among other topics. Some items I found as interesting facts included descriptions of hotspots which are when "plates of oceanic crust are moving slowly over extra-hot parts of the mantle called hotspots. Each hotspot creates a volcano in the moving crust. Once the volcano moves off the hotspot, it becomes extinct, and a new volcano erupts in its place. Over millions of years, this process creates a chain of islands." Examples are Hawaii, Galapagos and Easter Island. Iceland is an island over a spreading rift so since it is not moving it doesn't create an island chain. The book explains that continental shelves are not the deep ocean floor but rather the flooded edge of a continent cut away by wave erosion and that the continental shelf around Scandinavia extends almost up to the North Pole. That rocks that were original part of sea floors now can be found quite high up on dry land including at the top of Everest. That sound waves travel faster underwater than they do in air and that the deeper you go, the faster they travel. A pistol shrimp uses that power of sound to kill prey with a quick snap shut of its claws.
The next section is called The Open Ocean which covers the various ocean depth zones, jelly fish, the food chain, schools of fish, sharks, whales, dolphins, ocean birds and those animals which live at the bottom of the ocean. Some interesting facts in this section was that dolphins were identified as a type of whale, specifically a tooth-whale. Additionally this was interesting on why the warm tropical water is so clear "In the tropics where the warm surface water rarely mixes with the colder water below it, the boundary between the two is called the thermocline. In open tropical oceans the thermocline usually stops dissolved minerals reaching the sunlit surface water, where they would encourage the growth of microscopic plankton. As a result, there is very little plankton in most tropical seas. This is why the water is crystal clear. In cooler seas, the thermocline breaks down in winter, allowing nutrients to fuel plankton growth."
Another interesting fact "The colder the water, the more oxygen it has. But deep in the twilight zone, there is a region where most of the oxygen has been used up by bacteria feeding on dead plankton sinking from above."
The next section is called Shallow Seas and has sections on seaweed, kelp forests, sea otters, sea snails and clams, squid, octopuses, lobsters, crabs, starfish, sea urchins and sea cucumbers, coral reefs including the Great Barrier Reef and atolls and lagoons among other topics.
The next section is about Coast and Seashore
The next section is about the polar seas
And the final section is about human interaction with the oceans.
Very good book with a lot of spectacular pictures.
September 18, 2019
this Book got me into to the ocean and my love of marine life i still go back to look at this book when I am bored and my love of dolphins every time in 3rd grade we were reading i would take out this book and now nonfiction is my favorite genre.
September 16, 2019
While I was reading this I felt fascinated because I want to save the ocean and learn about sea creatures. After I read it I read it 5 more times to make sure I caught all the information.
November 16, 2019
739 - 2019
May 7, 2025
Nice reference book for the classroom.
November 13, 2015
You can always count on DK Publishing to provide large awe-inspiring books that kids and adults alike will read and reference time and time again. This reference book, Ocean: A Visual Encyclopedia, by John Woodward and in partnership with the Smithsonian Institute, isn’t your run of the mill book about the ocean. Broken into seven color-coded sections that each focuses on similar topics such as, Shallow Seas: Fertile waters, Kelp forests, Giant clam, and Atolls and lagoons, just to name a few, accompanied with vibrantly alive images, and will provide tidbits of information that you probably didn’t know until now. Who knew there were so many different seas surrounding Antarctica? Or that ice shelves have names? Read the entire review at http://www.sandiegobookreview.com/oce...
Reviewed by Kim Heimbuch
Reviewed by Kim Heimbuch
October 10, 2016
Loved how they described everthing , stunning pictures
August 10, 2018
I read this while I was vacation at the beach because I wanted to understand the life under the ocean’s surface. This book was fascinating! I loved reading it and soaking up all the trivia. I loved looking at the ocean with more understanding and marveling at its vastness and God’s creative power in forming it so intricately. Highly recommend!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews