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The Power of the Sea: Tsunamis, Storm Surges, Rogue Waves, and Our Quest to Predict Disasters
The Power of the Sea describes our struggle to understand the physics of the sea, so we can use that knowledge to predict when the sea will unleash its fury against us. In a wide-sweeping narrative spanning much of human history, Bruce Parker, former chief scientist of the National Ocean Service, interweaves thrilling and often moving stories of unpredicted natural disaster with an accessible account of scientific discovery. The result is a compelling scientific journey, from ancient man's first crude tide predictions to today's advanced early warning ability based on the Global Ocean Observing System. It is a journey still underway, as we search for ways to predict tsunamis and rogue waves and critical aspects of El Niño and climate change caused by global warming.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published October 26, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
March 18, 2017
Easy reading while dropping facts. Perfect.
February 28, 2022
It was pretty interesting for the first seven chapters but fell off for the last three chapters. The first seven held interesting anecdotes and interesting science, but the last three were filled with dense information and somber anecdotes of tsunami victims. Overall worth a read.
May 20, 2018
Will Ristow
Citation: Parker, Bruce B. The Power of the Sea: Tsunamis, Storm Surges, Rogue Waves, and Our Quest to Predict the Sea's Moments of Destruction. Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.
The Power of the Sea by Bruce Parker utilizes several arguments to illuminates how powerful the ocean continues to be in influences life on Earth. This includes the illustrating how human history of struggle to understand the mechanics behind the ocean and how disasters became comprehensible through scientific inquiry. Parker, the former chief scientist of the National Ocean Service, furthermore interweaves stories of unpredicted natural disasters and shows the scientific journey from ancient man's first crude tide predictions to today's advanced early warning ability based on the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS). However, the main argument Parker conveys includes that with the ability to predict ocean phenomenon, that humans can escape the ocean’s power and avoid unnecessary deaths. Despite this, Parker highlights that not all problems can currently be solved and uses examples such as predicting tsunamis, rogue waves, the critical aspects of El Niño, and questions regarding the role of climate change.
In analyzing the root causes of oceanic destruction, Parker argues that the energy unleashed by the ocean comes from three sources. First, energy from the sun provides heat that is distributed unevenly across the globe, which aids in the creation of storm surges and wind waves (4). The second source of energy comes from the Moon and its tidal impact. He does an acceptable job in providing this background information within the underlying roots of energy within tidal forces and waves. Although this may seem rudimentary by most geographic standards, knowing the energy budget that is distributed and utilized in the world’s oceans remains essential. Since energy changes form and does not disappear, understanding the amount of energy that is transferred into the processes that humans observe has implications regarding the nature of the ocean. This book also does a great job of explaining definitions without taking away from the story elements Parker incorporates. For example, seasoned oceanographers may recognize a SLOSH model, but for the general population and myself, Parker uses brief and effective wordings to illustrate these systems that have changed over time. By defining the meaning, date of creation, and background of respective terms, Parker effectively provides insight for the reader. For instance, when defining SLOSH, he states that it “stands for sea, lake, and overland surges from hurricanes” while also highlighting that “it was first developed in the late 1960’s and was greatly improved following Hurricane Camille” (91). Parker repeats this process in with a variety of terms, which both helps to educate the reader and help them to interpret this new knowledge through historical examples. This ties in to the large usage of history in the progression of learning the elements within the oceans.
A pattern I found that correlates with Parker’s section history of progression on knowledge about the ocean includes how large amount experience on tides and oceanic processes came from military exploits. Throughout the first two chapters in the book, Parker illuminates that military landings have been essential in attempts to determine the effects of the tide. Parker illustrates that these lessons of the power of the seas date back to Caesar, the middle ages, and especially for the various amphibious landings throughout World War Two (there is a entire chapter dedicated to the D-Day landings). The element of human struggle in understanding the impact of the tides created consequences, which according to this book, has made knowledge on oceanic processes imperative for nation-states and armies historically. Parker does an excellent job of using examples such as Caesar’s invasion of England, Napoleon’s encounter in the Red sea, D-Day and the inventions that led to the systems people use today. One of these inventions that incorporated by Parker included recognition of wind waves that decided the Battle of Salamis in 480 BC (101). Through knowing how the channeled strait creates larger waves off the island of Salamis was then utilized by Pericles and the Greek navy to defeat the Persians and change world history. In a similar fashion, Parker also showed that the Munk-Sverdrup formula was created by oceanographers during World War two to calculate wave conditions for amphibious landings, and not initially for civilian or practical use. Although Parker does not illustrate this in the book, I think that acknowledging the role of military innovations in the oceanic monitoring methods needs to be done. Although this does not correlate with all oceanic terms or progress, many of the systems used today such as the Global Ocean Observing System are relatives of the precursors created as a byproduct of conflict.
This book illustrates various oceanic constructs in a creative manner that incorporates history of human knowledge. Through the utilization of gradual expansion on previous oceanic views, Parker illuminates that the oceanic processes have taken thousands of years to comprehend.
Furthermore, Parker argues that there are still processes unknown to man and cannot fully be explained such as rogue waves and tsunamis. In chapter four titled “Defending Our Coasts”, Parker uses this chapter to illustrate and advocate for better storm warning systems to inform and prevent deaths from storm surges and hurricanes in coastal areas across the globe. Also, this chapter starkly illustrates the consequences for not having these vital warning systems with tragic losses that occurred in Galveston, Texas in a 1900 hurricane and repeatedly in the areas surrounding the Bay of Bengal. Despite this, one argument that can be made against Parker includes the consistent human encroachment near the oceans. Since a large percentage of the Earth’s population lives on the coast, oceanic changes in sea level and severity will continue to have a proportional impact on human life. If people truly wanted to limit the extent of death and destruction by the sea, then there would be less development along the coast. I realize that this trend does not seem extremely rational, as marine climate remain moderated in temperature and hold most of the world’s largest cities. However, I believe this book should delve into this problem as coastal populations rise along with increases in water levels and storm severity. While Parker illuminates growing problems that climate change and other possibilities may have, he should furthermore provide solutions or fixes that need to happen within society. Since this book demonstrates how humanity historically learned to adapt to problems created by the ocean, it also needs to set people on the right path in finding answers issues in the future. Another example from the book that indirectly highlights this point includes the failure of DART buoys in detecting the Japanese submarine Earthquake that broke down the Fukushima nuclear power plant in 2011. Although the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) was notified of the earthquake right away, the buoys deployed in the region were too slow in relaying that a tsunami was coming and reported this information after it smacked the east coast of Japan. While these prevention techniques remain helpful, they cannot guarantee success in protecting people living near the coast near fault lines where earthquake are common.
Overall, The Power of the Sea by Bruce Parker does an excellent job of identifying and explaining how ocean predicting techniques have evolved historically and the processes they have been used to predict. Through acknowledging the existence of weather patterns and the struggles by humans to understand them, Parker illustrates the importance in learning and continuing discover the underlying processes that drive the disasters from the seas.
Citation: Parker, Bruce B. The Power of the Sea: Tsunamis, Storm Surges, Rogue Waves, and Our Quest to Predict the Sea's Moments of Destruction. Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.
The Power of the Sea by Bruce Parker utilizes several arguments to illuminates how powerful the ocean continues to be in influences life on Earth. This includes the illustrating how human history of struggle to understand the mechanics behind the ocean and how disasters became comprehensible through scientific inquiry. Parker, the former chief scientist of the National Ocean Service, furthermore interweaves stories of unpredicted natural disasters and shows the scientific journey from ancient man's first crude tide predictions to today's advanced early warning ability based on the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS). However, the main argument Parker conveys includes that with the ability to predict ocean phenomenon, that humans can escape the ocean’s power and avoid unnecessary deaths. Despite this, Parker highlights that not all problems can currently be solved and uses examples such as predicting tsunamis, rogue waves, the critical aspects of El Niño, and questions regarding the role of climate change.
In analyzing the root causes of oceanic destruction, Parker argues that the energy unleashed by the ocean comes from three sources. First, energy from the sun provides heat that is distributed unevenly across the globe, which aids in the creation of storm surges and wind waves (4). The second source of energy comes from the Moon and its tidal impact. He does an acceptable job in providing this background information within the underlying roots of energy within tidal forces and waves. Although this may seem rudimentary by most geographic standards, knowing the energy budget that is distributed and utilized in the world’s oceans remains essential. Since energy changes form and does not disappear, understanding the amount of energy that is transferred into the processes that humans observe has implications regarding the nature of the ocean. This book also does a great job of explaining definitions without taking away from the story elements Parker incorporates. For example, seasoned oceanographers may recognize a SLOSH model, but for the general population and myself, Parker uses brief and effective wordings to illustrate these systems that have changed over time. By defining the meaning, date of creation, and background of respective terms, Parker effectively provides insight for the reader. For instance, when defining SLOSH, he states that it “stands for sea, lake, and overland surges from hurricanes” while also highlighting that “it was first developed in the late 1960’s and was greatly improved following Hurricane Camille” (91). Parker repeats this process in with a variety of terms, which both helps to educate the reader and help them to interpret this new knowledge through historical examples. This ties in to the large usage of history in the progression of learning the elements within the oceans.
A pattern I found that correlates with Parker’s section history of progression on knowledge about the ocean includes how large amount experience on tides and oceanic processes came from military exploits. Throughout the first two chapters in the book, Parker illuminates that military landings have been essential in attempts to determine the effects of the tide. Parker illustrates that these lessons of the power of the seas date back to Caesar, the middle ages, and especially for the various amphibious landings throughout World War Two (there is a entire chapter dedicated to the D-Day landings). The element of human struggle in understanding the impact of the tides created consequences, which according to this book, has made knowledge on oceanic processes imperative for nation-states and armies historically. Parker does an excellent job of using examples such as Caesar’s invasion of England, Napoleon’s encounter in the Red sea, D-Day and the inventions that led to the systems people use today. One of these inventions that incorporated by Parker included recognition of wind waves that decided the Battle of Salamis in 480 BC (101). Through knowing how the channeled strait creates larger waves off the island of Salamis was then utilized by Pericles and the Greek navy to defeat the Persians and change world history. In a similar fashion, Parker also showed that the Munk-Sverdrup formula was created by oceanographers during World War two to calculate wave conditions for amphibious landings, and not initially for civilian or practical use. Although Parker does not illustrate this in the book, I think that acknowledging the role of military innovations in the oceanic monitoring methods needs to be done. Although this does not correlate with all oceanic terms or progress, many of the systems used today such as the Global Ocean Observing System are relatives of the precursors created as a byproduct of conflict.
This book illustrates various oceanic constructs in a creative manner that incorporates history of human knowledge. Through the utilization of gradual expansion on previous oceanic views, Parker illuminates that the oceanic processes have taken thousands of years to comprehend.
Furthermore, Parker argues that there are still processes unknown to man and cannot fully be explained such as rogue waves and tsunamis. In chapter four titled “Defending Our Coasts”, Parker uses this chapter to illustrate and advocate for better storm warning systems to inform and prevent deaths from storm surges and hurricanes in coastal areas across the globe. Also, this chapter starkly illustrates the consequences for not having these vital warning systems with tragic losses that occurred in Galveston, Texas in a 1900 hurricane and repeatedly in the areas surrounding the Bay of Bengal. Despite this, one argument that can be made against Parker includes the consistent human encroachment near the oceans. Since a large percentage of the Earth’s population lives on the coast, oceanic changes in sea level and severity will continue to have a proportional impact on human life. If people truly wanted to limit the extent of death and destruction by the sea, then there would be less development along the coast. I realize that this trend does not seem extremely rational, as marine climate remain moderated in temperature and hold most of the world’s largest cities. However, I believe this book should delve into this problem as coastal populations rise along with increases in water levels and storm severity. While Parker illuminates growing problems that climate change and other possibilities may have, he should furthermore provide solutions or fixes that need to happen within society. Since this book demonstrates how humanity historically learned to adapt to problems created by the ocean, it also needs to set people on the right path in finding answers issues in the future. Another example from the book that indirectly highlights this point includes the failure of DART buoys in detecting the Japanese submarine Earthquake that broke down the Fukushima nuclear power plant in 2011. Although the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) was notified of the earthquake right away, the buoys deployed in the region were too slow in relaying that a tsunami was coming and reported this information after it smacked the east coast of Japan. While these prevention techniques remain helpful, they cannot guarantee success in protecting people living near the coast near fault lines where earthquake are common.
Overall, The Power of the Sea by Bruce Parker does an excellent job of identifying and explaining how ocean predicting techniques have evolved historically and the processes they have been used to predict. Through acknowledging the existence of weather patterns and the struggles by humans to understand them, Parker illustrates the importance in learning and continuing discover the underlying processes that drive the disasters from the seas.
January 9, 2020
Despite being hugely interested in the the subject matter, I found this book terribly tedious and its writing style far too dry.
The only chapters that really engaged me were the two concerning the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami.
Otherwise I found myself looking to see how many pages I had left to read far too many times.
Disappointing.
The only chapters that really engaged me were the two concerning the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami.
Otherwise I found myself looking to see how many pages I had left to read far too many times.
Disappointing.
November 30, 2010
Some interesting stories, especially about rogue waves and tsunamis. But perhaps a little more than I really wanted to know about the science.
September 23, 2018
Out of the many scientific books I've read that are meant for general consumption, this one has so far been on of the best. It hit the balance of scientific data and good writing well, and didn't fall into the trap of dense scientific language that so many books like it do. Overall an extremely enjoyable and interesting read.
July 8, 2019
Hang in there through the first chapter, which is really dense--understandably so, as the tide is a very complicated thing to understand and predict. The remainder of the book was a much easier go, and I spent a lot of time reading particularly fascinating paragraphs out loud to my family or handing off the book to my husband to read sections pertinent to his interests.
December 5, 2017
A. I enjoyed the book and the discussions of the physical manifestations of the sea: tided, wind waves and currents, rogue waves and tsunamis.
December 3, 2018
NF
237 pages
The sea is very complicated. A very
compelling and informative book.
237 pages
The sea is very complicated. A very
compelling and informative book.
February 1, 2021
links historical happenings to real life science and explores modern advances in studying the ocean. It was really cool!
May 30, 2011
This is a really good book, and I don’t say that lightly about nonfiction. The subtitle is “Tsunamis, Storm Surges, Rogue Waves, and Our Quest to Predict Disasters.”
The good news is, modern technology makes it possible to predict or identify a variety of threats from the sea.
The bad news is, it isn’t always enough, and may never be. Witness the recent earthquake-and-tsunami in Japan. The book talks at length about the December 2004 earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean – which you may recalled killed an estimated 300,000 people.
Parker presents his material in a partly chronological and partly topical format, beginning with the development of tide predictions, and the often rather odd theories developed to explain them in the ancient and medieval worlds. And I mean “worlds”: he also deals with Chinese civilization’s efforts in this and other areas, in a worthy nod to the fact that there have always been thinking beings in the East as well as the West.
Did you know that “rogue waves” out in the ocean can top 90 feet and do in anything from an oil tanker or a luxury ocean liner on down? Not to mention occasionally demolishing lighthouses. For a long time, it seems, scientists didn’t even believe in them. And there’s currently no way to predict those.
The author nicely balances genuine and well-explained scientific information with fascinating, terrifying, and horrifying examples from history. Obviously he had to choose from among a plethora of actual or potential disasters, but I think he does a good job.
You should read this book if you actually want to understand how dangerous the sea can be, and how important modern (computerized!) research on the ocean really is. And Parker also delves into the problem of climate change, if you want to know more about that, discussing some of the credible potential effects (meaning, rising ocean levels) and hammering home the importance of maintaining the extensive monitoring of ocean data that has been developing for the last few decades.
Maybe not a book you want to invest $28.00 in, but I got it from the library – and I’m sure you can, too. And I know I’m a lot more educated now than I was before I read it.
The good news is, modern technology makes it possible to predict or identify a variety of threats from the sea.
The bad news is, it isn’t always enough, and may never be. Witness the recent earthquake-and-tsunami in Japan. The book talks at length about the December 2004 earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean – which you may recalled killed an estimated 300,000 people.
Parker presents his material in a partly chronological and partly topical format, beginning with the development of tide predictions, and the often rather odd theories developed to explain them in the ancient and medieval worlds. And I mean “worlds”: he also deals with Chinese civilization’s efforts in this and other areas, in a worthy nod to the fact that there have always been thinking beings in the East as well as the West.
Did you know that “rogue waves” out in the ocean can top 90 feet and do in anything from an oil tanker or a luxury ocean liner on down? Not to mention occasionally demolishing lighthouses. For a long time, it seems, scientists didn’t even believe in them. And there’s currently no way to predict those.
The author nicely balances genuine and well-explained scientific information with fascinating, terrifying, and horrifying examples from history. Obviously he had to choose from among a plethora of actual or potential disasters, but I think he does a good job.
You should read this book if you actually want to understand how dangerous the sea can be, and how important modern (computerized!) research on the ocean really is. And Parker also delves into the problem of climate change, if you want to know more about that, discussing some of the credible potential effects (meaning, rising ocean levels) and hammering home the importance of maintaining the extensive monitoring of ocean data that has been developing for the last few decades.
Maybe not a book you want to invest $28.00 in, but I got it from the library – and I’m sure you can, too. And I know I’m a lot more educated now than I was before I read it.
July 24, 2011
This is a fascinating book by a scientist who worked several years with the NOAA. Subjects included in this book are the 12/24/04 earthquake and tsunami(s) which occurred (epicenter two large tectonic plates) in the Indonesian area, but which affected thousands of miles of coastline in Thailand, Sri Lanka, India and other areas. The descriptions of the events of this particular disaster are particularly tragic; in my opinion, much worse than the media made them out to be.
There are also descriptions of what are called squalls, or rogue waves, which for many, many years few believed existed unless they happened to survive one. I did not realize how much of an effect weather can have upon ocean waves either.
I think this is a fascinating but disturbing book, but since we all live on this planet, all of us need to learn the facts about the substance that covers over 75% of the planet. We also need to know what to do when unusual events do happen.
There are also descriptions of what are called squalls, or rogue waves, which for many, many years few believed existed unless they happened to survive one. I did not realize how much of an effect weather can have upon ocean waves either.
I think this is a fascinating but disturbing book, but since we all live on this planet, all of us need to learn the facts about the substance that covers over 75% of the planet. We also need to know what to do when unusual events do happen.
August 5, 2016
A well written explanation of tides, tsunamis, rogue waves and storm surges.
Showed how tidal bores, such as the one on the Qiantang River in China, are caused by the tide waters being forced into a constricted space. The tides are basically a huge wave, with massive power, and the shape of a coast will dramatically affect their characteristics. Napoleon was almost drowned by the tide on the Red Sea, near where Moses probably crossed, because he and his party crossed the shallows too close to the incoming waters.
The chapter on rogue waves showed hoe these develop from a variety of factors, all of which are constantly at work in the ocean, the term "rogue" is not really accurate: These can, and do, occur frequently, but have such short duration they are not often observed by humans. At least not by humans who survived, as numerous ships are believed to have been lost from these.
Much attention went to tsunamis, their causes and their history.
Showed how tidal bores, such as the one on the Qiantang River in China, are caused by the tide waters being forced into a constricted space. The tides are basically a huge wave, with massive power, and the shape of a coast will dramatically affect their characteristics. Napoleon was almost drowned by the tide on the Red Sea, near where Moses probably crossed, because he and his party crossed the shallows too close to the incoming waters.
The chapter on rogue waves showed hoe these develop from a variety of factors, all of which are constantly at work in the ocean, the term "rogue" is not really accurate: These can, and do, occur frequently, but have such short duration they are not often observed by humans. At least not by humans who survived, as numerous ships are believed to have been lost from these.
Much attention went to tsunamis, their causes and their history.
February 17, 2011
Begins great, ends with a disappointment. The mechanisms of tides, storm surges, and tsunamis are so systematically explained (in a very impressive block-by-block manner) that you think the climate-change stuff in the last section is gonna be brilliant. Instead, it's cursory, rushed, and bloodless. Oh, well. But the first 75% of the book is well worth the time.
March 30, 2011
It would be nice to have more figures.
June 28, 2016
My review is here: http://www.learntodivetoday.co.za/blo...
March 16, 2013
Loved the science aspect, fascinating and enjoyable reading.
October 24, 2012
Very interesting especially the bits about tsunami, and how humans first figured out how tides work.
May 24, 2014
Compelling description of the power of the sea and its role in history. I thought that the last chapters on the 2004 tsunami were too long compared to the rest, but enjoyed reading it nonetheless.
January 18, 2015
As a man of the sea I so enjoyed this book.
Read
September 11, 2018Magnificently and authoritatively researched and written.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews