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Adventures in Ocean Exploration
I read this book while sick in bed one weekend, wishing I was diving. Robert Ballard has lived a life of exploration and adventure, and has had a pioneering role in the use of submersibles – both manned and unmanned – in deep sea mapping and exploration.
This is a large-format, lavishly illustrated book, as with the other National Geographic titles I’ve reviewed, that is a happy meeting between a description of some of the highlights of Ballard’s varied career, and a history of man’s relationship to the ocean. It’s written in an entertaining anecdotal style, but with lots of solid historical background. The photographs are magnificent.
It’s not the first of Ballard’s books I would get hold of, if I was starting out a collection, but it’s a good addition to the library of someone who is fascinated both by undersea science (the hydrothermal vents chapter is marvellous) and history. If you’re interested in the process and results of deep sea submersible exploration, I’d take a look at Ballard’s Titanic book first.
You can get hold of a copy of Adventures in Ocean Exploration here.
4 Comments
Bookshelf: Explorations « Learn to Dive Today
08 Feb 2011 07:02 am
[...] Ballard is the author of several other books I’ve reviewed here, and I must confess that this is one of the ones I enjoyed the most. He’s best known for his [...]
Bookshelf: Return to Titanic « Learn to Dive Today
13 Feb 2011 07:02 am
[...] resulted from its discovery in 1985 has made him a household name and enabled him to cash in with numerous other publications on undersea [...]
Series: The Deep « Learn to Dive Today
21 Feb 2011 07:02 am
[...] set almost entirely on a submarine, 600 metres beneath the North Pole. The crew are visiting a hydrothermal vent field to do scientific research, but first have to figure out what happened to an earlier expedition that [...]
Bookshelf: The Eternal Darkness « Learn to Dive Today
15 Mar 2011 07:03 am
[...] books – Robert Ballard’s Titanic, Mystery of the Ancient Seafarers, Return to Titanic, Adventures in Ocean Exploration, and Explorations, his [...]
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