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Author Ballard, Robert D.

Title The eternal darkness : a personal history of deep-sea exploration / Robert D. Ballard, with Will Hively.

Publication Info. Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, [2000]
©2000

Item Status

Location Call No. Status OPAC Message Public Note Gift Note
 Moore Stacks  GC65 .B275 2000    Available  ---
Description xii, 388 pages : illustrations (some color), maps ; 24 cm
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 315-374) and index.
Contents Depth -- Simple tethered sphere -- Bathyscaphs race to the bottom -- Tragic dawn of the modern deep submersible -- Discovery -- Scientists begin exploring the deep -- Midocean ridge: Womb of the Earth -- Hydrothermal vents: Exotic oases -- Black smokers: Recipe for a salty ocean -- Detachment -- Tethered eyeball races to find the Titanic -- Recovering our past by remote control -- Should humans continue to dive: Two paradigms.
Summary Until a few decades ago, the ocean depths were almost as mysterious and inaccessible as outer space. Oceans cover two-thirds of the earth's surface with an average depth of more than two miles -- yet humans had never ventured more than a few hundred feet below the waves. One of the great scientific and archaeological feats of our time has been finally to cast light on the "eternal darkness" of the deep sea. This is the story of that achievement, told by the man who has done more than any other to make it possible: Robert Ballard. Ballard discovered the wreck of the Titanic. He led the teams that discovered hydrothermal vents and "black smokers"--Cracks in the ocean floor where springs of superheated water support some of the strangest life-forms on the planet. He was a diver on the team that explored the mid-Atlantic ridge for the first time, confirming the theory of plate tectonics. Today, he is exploring the ancient trade routes of the world in hopes of launching a new field of research in deep-water archaeology. In this book, he combines science, history, spectacular illustrations, and firsthand stories from his own expeditions in a uniquely personal account of how twentieth-century explorers have pushed back the frontiers of technology to take us into the midst of a world we could once only guess at. Ballard begins in 1930 with William Beebe and Otis Barton, pioneers of the ocean depths who made the world's first deep-sea dives in a cramped steel sphere. He introduces us to Auguste and Jacques Piccard, whose "bathyscaph" descended in 1960 to the lowest point on the ocean floor. He reviews the celebrated advances made by Jacques Cousteau. He describes his own major discoveries-- from sea-floor spreading to black smokers -- as well as his technical breakthroughs, including the development of remote -operated underwater vehicles and the revolutionary search techniques that led to the discovery and exploration of the Titanic, the Nazi battleship Bismarck, ancient trading vessels, and other great ships.
Subject Underwater exploration -- History.
Underwater exploration.
History.
Added Author Hively, Will.
ISBN 0691027404 cloth alkaline paper
Standard No. 9780691027401