As a passenger on the first two legs of Titanic's ill fated voyage, Father Francis Browne SJ's photographs are an immensely important record. As well as taking a unique set of photos, Father Browne also assembled an incredibly valuable album of Titanic material such as an original deck plan, menus, letters to him from fellow passengers, contemporary newspaper cuttings and other documents, many of which are reproduced here. Thanks to the gift of a ticket from his uncle, a young Jesuit named...

The legendary explorer of Titanic and Lusitania looks back on his life behind his famous exploits and unveils a major new discovery on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the Titanic find.Best known for finding the wreck of the Titanic, celebrated adventurer Robert Ballard has a lifetime of stories about exploring the ocean depths. From discovering new extremophile life-forms thriving at 750°F hydrothermal vents in 1977 to finding famous shipwrecks including the Bismarck and PT ...

The classic account of how volcanism has shaped human culture and science, from the Bronze Age eruption that destroyed Minoan Crete to Mount St. HelensWhen the volcano Tambora erupted in Indonesia in 1815, as many as one hundred thousand people perished from the blast and ensuing famine. Gases and dust particles ejected into the atmosphere changed weather patterns around the world, resulting in the infamous “year without a summer” in North America, food riots in Eu...

Archaeological Oceanography is the definitive book on the newly emerging field of deep-sea archaeology. Marine archaeologists have been finding and excavating underwater shipwrecks since at least the early 1950s, but until recently their explorations have been restricted to depths considered shallow by oceanographic standards. This book describes the latest advances that enable researchers to probe the secrets of the deep ocean, and the vital contributions these advances offer to ...

The legendary explorer of the Titanic shares inside stories of danger, suspense, and discovery--plus previously untold stories about his own dyslexia and how it has shaped his life. Best known for finding the doomed ship Titanic, celebrated adventurer Robert Ballard has a lifetime of stories about exploring the ocean depths. Now he gets personal, telling the stories behind his most exciting discoveries—including how a top-secret naval mission provided the opportunity for his Titanic discov...

National Book Award Winner and New York Times Bestseller: Explore earth's most precious, mysterious resource—the ocean—with the author of Silent Spring.With more than one million copies sold, Rachel Carson's The Sea Around Us became a cultural phenomenon when first published in 1951 and cemented Carson's status as the preeminent natural history writer of her time. Her inspiring, intimate writing plumbs the depths of an enigmatic world—a p...

The bestselling author of The Professor and the Madman and The Map That Changed the World examines the enduring and world-changing effects of the catastrophic volcanic eruption off the coast of Java of the earth’s most dangerous volcano — Krakatoa.The legendary annihilation in 1883 of the volcano-island of Krakatoa — the name has since become a byword for a cataclysmic natural disaster — was followed by an immense tsunami that killed nearly forty...

Many have believed that Atlantis was a fiction created by Plato. Well Plato was not the first to write about it.We have found a very much earlier document. It was written in 9619 BC, about 9,250 years before Plato's writing.This ancient document is believed to be the oldest document that has survived almost intact down through the ages.Further, archeological finds and scientific evidence provide convincing proof that Atlantis really did exist; Atlantis was real....

Volcanoes, Earthquakes and Tsunamis is the essential guide to what causes the most frightening geological events with which we are faced today. It covers plate tectonics, the intricacies of each terrible phenomina, and their effects as well as the impact they have on each other, how they can be predicted and, if possible, controlled.NOT GOT MUCH TIME?One, five and ten-minute introductions to key principles to get you started.AUTHOR INSIGHTSLots of instant he...

Twenty thousand years ago our planet was an icehouse. Temperatures were down six degrees; ice sheets kilometres thick buried much of Europe and North America and sea levels were 130m lower. The following 15 millennia saw an astonishing transformation as our planet metamorphosed into the temperate world upon which our civilisation has grown and thrived. One of the most dynamic periods in Earth history saw rocketing temperatures melt the great ice sheets like butter on a hot summer's day; fe...

Humanity can make short work of the oceans’ creatures. In 1741, hungry explorers discovered herds of Steller’s sea cow in the Bering Strait, and in less than thirty years, the amiable beast had been harpooned into extinction. It’s a classic story, but a key fact is often omitted. Bering Island was the last redoubt of a species that had been decimated by hunting and habitat loss years before the explorers set sail.As Callum M. Roberts reveals in The Unnatural History of the S

On the morning of May 18, 1980, one of the most perfectly formed volcanic peaks in the Cascade Range of the Northwest erupted. Nine hours later Mount St. Helens had lost 1,300-feet from its peak, 230 square miles of pristine forest had been destroyed, and a cubic mile of the mountain had been erupted 12 miles into the atmosphere. This is the story of that day, the mountain, and its recovery.