Surfers, sailors, and anyone who loves the ocean will enjoy this visual exploration of the world's seas along its shores, including rip tides, swells, waves, and tsunamis. Tide is the vertical motion of water, something so subtle it is impossible to see with the naked eye. Inspired by his travels around the world's coastline in a camper van with his young family, William Thomson captures the cycles of the sea's movement, and intersperses his adventures surfing the waves and charting the tides. Throughout Tides and the Ocean are his graphic renderings of unusual tidal maps, as well as other forms of water movement, including rip, rapids, swell, stream, tide, wave, whirlpool, and tsunami. Tides and the Ocean explains how the tides surge when the moon and sun align with the earth; how ocean streams alternate direction every six hours (which is invaluable information for kayakers, paddle boarders, and fishermen); why skyscraper-sized tsunamis occur frequently in an Alaskan Bay; and the most deadly beach orientation for rip currents. Also emphasized throughout is the importance of keeping the world's oceans healthy and full of life. Published in time for beach travel, this large-format hardcover is ideal for anyone who knows and loves the sea, and who wants to understand, discover, surf, or sail it better.
This book explores sea-level change on timescales from hours to centuries, its processes and its measurement techniques, for graduate students, researchers and policy-makers.
Comprehensive coverage of the whole Earth system throughout its entire existence and beyond Complete with a new introduction by the authors, this updated edition helps provide an understanding of the past, present, and future processes that occur on and in our Earth—the fascinating, yet potentially lethal, set of atmospheric, surface, and internal processes that interact to produce our living environment. It introduces students to our planet’s four key interdependent systems: the atmosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere, focusing on their key components, the interactions between them, and environmental change. The book also uses geological case studies throughout, in addition to the modern processes. Topics covered in the Second Edition of Earth Environments: Past, Present and Future include: an Earth systems model; components systems and processes; atmospheric systems; oceanography; surface and internal geological systems; biogeography; and aspects of Earth's record. The book also discusses the impact of climate and environmental change in a final chapter that draws together Earth's systems and their evolution, and looks ahead to potential future changes in Earth’s environments. Updated to include all the major developments since 2008 Features research boxes containing summaries based on recent key journal articles Includes a companion web site containing multiple choice revision quizzes for students, PowerPoint slides for lecturers, useful links, and more Presents further reading for each topic so that students can build their knowledge base to underpin their own undergraduate research project/dissertation Offers additional case studies in each chapter for enhanced reader understanding Earth Environments: Past, Present and Future is an excellent text for undergraduates in geosciences, environmental science, physical geography, natural hazards, and ecology.