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A review by spacewhombus
Mapping the Deep: The Extraordinary Story of Ocean Science by Robert Kunzig
4.0
This book really paints a broad picture of the history of oceanography, and I love that it touched on a variety of topics- from ocean circulation, types and abundance of plankton, the complicated process of mapping the sea floor, consequences of overfishing, to climate impacts and beyond.
As someone studying in the oceanographic field I wasn’t totally new to this subject, so I’m not sure how someone with no prior knowledge might like this book, although I can’t recall any chapters with an overload of technical information. For example, I have no knowledge of biological sciences but the marine biology chapters were not an issue for me.
The main thing I took away from this book is that I didn’t realize how much of what we know about the ocean was so recently discovered! Even though the book is a little dated by now (hence the four stars), I thought it was still a great snapshot of what was cutting edge research in the 1990s. My favorite chapter overall was the beautifully poetic description of the thermohaline circulation.
As someone studying in the oceanographic field I wasn’t totally new to this subject, so I’m not sure how someone with no prior knowledge might like this book, although I can’t recall any chapters with an overload of technical information. For example, I have no knowledge of biological sciences but the marine biology chapters were not an issue for me.
The main thing I took away from this book is that I didn’t realize how much of what we know about the ocean was so recently discovered! Even though the book is a little dated by now (hence the four stars), I thought it was still a great snapshot of what was cutting edge research in the 1990s. My favorite chapter overall was the beautifully poetic description of the thermohaline circulation.