Ocean Worlds: The Story of Seas on Earth and Other Planets So far, every volume signed Jan Zalasiewi

Ocean Worlds: The Story of Seas on Earth and Other PlanetsSo far, every volume signed Jan Zalasiewicz had proved a geological pleasure (as indeed have all the others in the series on Earth Systems Science that OUP have been releasing), and this latest instalment (the second book he’s co written with Mark Williams) did not disappoint my high expectations. While it isn’t an overview of the current state of oceanography, it provides a pleasant and fascinating romp through all things ocean, from the origin of the water in comets, through their role in the great cycles of the elements to the current ecological catastrophe shaping up in the planet’s seas.They start at the beginning, the formation of elements in successive generations of stars after the Big Bang, and show how water is common in the Universe, both in and beyond solar systems. They move swiftly though the formation of our planet and the probable origin of the first seas, as well as can be deduced at such a great remove. There is a fascinating digression on the beginning of plate tectonics (which he places around 3.2 billion years ago, a date supported by several lines of evidence), which allowed new continental crust to form via the volcanism caused by subducted water bound into minerals and sediments on the descending plate, refertilising the mantle.After a discussion of the role of tectonics in providing basins for the water to slosh around in they chart a general history of ocean development through geological time before moving on to the fascinating tale of salt, how the balance of dissolved ions has changed over time, and how salt is added to or removed from the oceans along with some discussion of the cycling of many elements through the ocean system. Next they move on to motion and the causes of currents and winds and a basic outline of how the interconnected earth-sea-air-life system operates and the effects of climate on the motions of sea water.Life is the next big topic, with a potted history of its development from simple microbe to blue whale, and after discussing the complexity of oceanic ecosystems the next chapter is a long and depressing litany of crisis (of the type I frequently write about here). This leads naturally to the end of the world’s oceans in a far distant future with a sun turned red giant, before a fascinating (if inevitably out of date since this branch of science is a swift moving current right now) discussion of the dead seas of Venus and Mars, hydrocarbon seas on Titan and the possible living seas under covers of ice on moons like Europa and Enceladus.They finish with the hope that developing technology will soon allow us to detect and analyse seas on some of the 3000 exoplanets discovered along with some informed speculation about wierd and wonderful discoveries that almost certainly await us, along with a discussion of the state of play of this new science as of a couple of years ago. As Lovelock pointed out, the best way to detect life is to use a spectroscope to analyse the atmosphere and see if it’s in chemical equilibrium or not.All in all an excellent little tome and for those of you who haven’t read his work so far all his /their other volumes repay a peaceful perusal.LozImage credit: NASA -- source link

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