Author Robert Kunzig, who is the European editor of Discover magazine, has a way of making The Restless Sea (551.46 KUN) an entertaining read. I can't help but compare it to Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything (500 BRY), except Kunzig's book isn't about everything - just the world beneath the waves.
Amazingly, the author says that little was known about the bottom of the seas until research was done in the 1980s. Until then, most scientists believed that it was a relative "desert" where little lived. How wrong those scientists were! When soil from the bottom of the ocean was first taken to the surface, they discovered it teaming with life. One of the creatures they found is the largest one-cell, amoeba-like animal that can grow to the size of a human fist.
While reading these various books for the blog, I'm finding that authors list some contribution by some Iowan. This book is no exception. Bruce Heezen, son of a turkey farmer, was going to the University of Iowa in 1947 when he was hired to explore the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Kunzig humorously makes a reference to Heezen not eating turkey for some 20 years after leaving the farm.
I know I'm getting off track, but I can relate to that. I'm the son of a farmer, also. Every year my parents purchased baby chicks in the Spring. Every Fall, we butchered the majority of them to eat during the next year. After I left the farm, I refused to order chicken in any restaurant for many years.
Getting back on track: Heezen became the first person to map the ocean floor in that area, and he proposed the idea that the earth's crust under the ocean was expanding.
Kunzig gives the history of researching the oceans and about the findings in a way that anyone can understand. I think you'll like The Restless Sea.
c Waterloo Public Library 2007
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