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Ice Ages: Solving the Mystery
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 551.792
EAN: 9780674440753
ISBN: 0674440757
Label: Harvard University Press
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 224
Publication Date: April 19, 2005
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Studio: Harvard University Press
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Editorial Review: This book tells the exciting story of the ice ages--what they were like, why they occurred, and when the next one is due. The solution to the ice age mystery originated when the National Science Foundation organized the CLIMAP project to study changes in the earth's climate over the past 700,000 years. One of the goals was to produce a map of the earth during the last ice age. Scientists examined cores of sediment from the Indian Ocean bed and deciphered a continuous history for the past 500,000 years. Their work ultimately confirmed the theory that the earth's irregular orbital motions account for the bizarre climatic changes which bring on ice ages. This is a tale of scientific discovery and the colorful people who participated: Louis Agassiz, the young Swiss naturalist whose geological studies first convinced scientists that the earth has recently passed through an ice age; the Reverend William Buckland, an eccentric but respected Oxford professor who fought so hard against the ice-age theory before accepting it; James Croll, a Scots mechanic who educated himself as a scientist and first formulated the astronomic theory of ice ages; Milutin Milankovitch, the Serbian mathematician who gave the astronomic theory its firm quantitative foundation; and the many other astronomers, geochemists, geologists, paleontologists, and geophysicists who have been engaged for nearly a century and a half in the pressing search for a solution to the ice-age mystery.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Story of how science figured out the Ice Ages
This relatively short book is a history of how science, first, figured out that the Ice Ages happened at all, and, second, figured out why they happened. The book proceeds by telling the stories of the individual scientists who did the critical work, and how their work progressed. Personally, I always find it interesting to hear how what is now presented as objective, bloodless fact was discovered through a process mixing great logic, reasoning power and fact-finding with periodic global cat fights ... Read More
Rating:  - Historical and Astronomical foundations.
This book is a readable account of the historical explanations for the ice ages. It provides some details of the lives of those involved in the building of the theory and the issues encounter in bring it to the front on science. The book also provide details on the current theory including the geological and astronomical evidence to support it. In addition in the last short section attempts to project in to the future what should be expected and a little of what is occurring that may change that. If you ... Read More
Rating: - popular science
This book which concerns with ice age imaginary, is the best one that I have ever read. From the beginning of the classical time to modern investigations, it is explained how the ice age idea have been developed. It has detail explanations and some figures that are useful for imaginary.
Rating: - Great story and well told
You should read this book if you are at all interested in ice ages, geology, history of science, climate change, or just a good story. It's a quick but thorough telling of the discovery of the ice ages and how their nature and origin have been slowly uncovered over the following 150 years (and still going!). No other book does so much in such a short space on the subject. One of the authors was personally involved in the story, so he has insider authority. Unfortunately, this probably accounts for the slower ... Read More
Rating: - The Earth's past climate-more important than you think
As a geologist, this book answered a lot of questions I've had concerning the cause(s) of the ice ages. I'd known about rumours about the configuration of the continents, Milankovitch's astronomical cycles, variation in sun output, changes in ocean currents, and so on, for some years, but I really needed a detailed analysis of the historical arguments, and the more recent evidence as to why these changes in the earth's climate occur. This book answers just about all I needed to know, as well as being a good study ... Read More
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