The Power of the Sea: Tsunamis, Storm Surges, Rogue Waves, and Our Quest to Predict Disasters

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More About This Book

Overview

The Power of the Sea describes our struggle to understand the physics of the sea, so we can use that knowledge to predict when the sea will unleash its fury against us. In a wide-sweeping narrative spanning much of human history, Bruce Parker, former chief scientist of the National Ocean Service, interweaves thrilling and often moving stories of unpredicted natural disaster with an accessible account of scientific discovery. The result is a compelling scientific journey, from ancient man’s first crude tide predictions to today’s advanced early warning ability based on the Global Ocean Observing System. The new paperback edition includes a dramatic new chapter on the 2011 Japan Tsunami.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly
In this educational account, professor (at the Stevens Institute of New Jersey) and scientist Parker examines the violent impact of the seas on human society, and our long struggle to understand them. Parker begins with an exploration of tidal forces and their role in major historical events, from the parting of the Red Sea to D-Day. He moves on to hurricanes, rogue waves, and tsunamis, ending with the catastrophic 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and following tsunamis that killed more than 225,000 people. As Parker describes these sea-spawned disasters, he also documents the slow growth of scientific knowledge that gives us a chance to predict and prepare for them. Parker is more scholar than storyteller, and at times he loses the drama of his subject. Long discussions of such topics as "Laplace tidal equations" and "geophysical fluid dynamics" give the sense of a first-year lecture on oceanography. Nevertheless, any reader with an interest in the subject will appreciate Parker's expertise. Parker is optimistic about our ability to manage the dangers of the seas, but as the events of 2004 demonstrated, in spite of all we've learned, they still have the power to render us helpless. (Nov.)
Library Journal
As the National Ocean Service's chief scientist, oceanographer Parker focused on ocean modeling and forecasting. Here, he covers storm surges, rogue waves, and tsunamis. Historical and modern examples are interwoven to add interest—Napoléon at the Red Sea, World War II beach assaults, the rogue wave that threatened the Queen Mary, and the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, plus minor coverage of 2005's Hurricane Katrina. The final chapter on El Niño, global observation, and prediction models to save lives and property reinforces the need for data, modeling, and sharing. Craig B. Smith's Extreme Waves includes more information on rogues, and John McQuaid and Mark Schleifstein's Path of Destruction, on Katrina, has a major emphasis on the politics involved. Parker explains the science in context and politics only in terms of data sharing to get the information to the public. The book would have benefited from a glossary, so specific topic chapters could be read independently, and it needs more maps. VERDICT This is an interesting review of the topic, with extensive footnotes. Science fans will find it of value.—Jean E. Crampon, Univ. of Southern California Science and Engineering Lib., Los Angeles
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Kirkus Reviews

An appealing overview of sea movements.

Former National Ocean Service chief scientist Parker begins with the familiar: tides, which turn out to be more complicated than readers may have learned in high school. Lunar gravity pulls the ocean, but so does the sun, plus a contribution from the centrifugal force of the earth's rotation and another from the tilt of its axis. Gravity powers tides, but geography and weather determine how high they rise. This varies from almost no tides in the Mediterranean to more than 50 feet around the Bay of Fundy in eastern Canada. The author then moves on to a discussion of more violent movements—when a river narrows as it approaches the sea, incoming tide is compressed and amplified, often producing a "tidal bore," a destructive wave that races upstream twice a day. Parker devotes the most attention to tsunamis, which are produced by undersea earthquakes or landslides, but similar phenomena, storm surges, occur more often. Winds from tropical and nontropical cyclones can push an immense wall of water across the shore. Surges produced the 1900 Galveston and 2005 New Orleans catastrophes, but these were modest compared with those in the Bay of Bengal, which have killed hundreds of thousands. Surges, not tsunamis or heavy rains, undoubtedly gave rise to flood myths present in almost all cultures. Parker mixes hair-raising descriptions of disasters with efforts to understand them, followed by advances, mostly since 1800, in predicting sea movements, a complex process that today involves satellites, supercomputers and worldwide warning networks.

Focusing on water alone—leaving marine life to Rachel Carson and others—the author provides a lucid, original contribution to popular-science writing.

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780230120747
  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
  • Publication date: 3/13/2012
  • Pages: 320
  • Sales rank: 168,805
  • Series: MacSci Series
  • Product dimensions: 6.10 (w) x 9.10 (h) x 1.00 (d)

Meet the Author

Bruce Parker is a world recognized expert in the oceans. He is former Chief Scientist of the National Ocean Service in NOAA and presently Visiting Professor at the Center for Maritime Systems at the Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey.  He has a Ph.D. in physical oceanography from The Johns Hopkins University.  Among his awards are the U.S. Department of Commerce Gold Medal and the Commodore Cooper Medal from the International Hydrographic Organization. He lives in Virginia.

Table of Contents

List of Figures

Introduction: When the Sea Turns against Us

Escaping the Sea's Fury through Prediction 1

1 The Earliest Predictions for the Sea

The Tide 7

2 The Moon, the Sun, and the Sea

The Tide Predictions for D-Day 7

3 The Sea's Greatest Killer

Predicting Storm Surges 53

4 Defending Our Coasts

Flooded Cities 75

5 Stormy Seas

Predicting Sea, Swell, and Surf 97

6 "Holes" in the Surface of the Sea

Rogue Waves 117

7 The Sea's Response to an Unpredictable Earth

Trying to Predict Tsunamis 133

8 December 26, 2004(Part 1)

Tragic Surprise in the Indian Ocean 161

9 December 26, 2004 (Part 2)

Learning from a Tragedy 181

10 Predicting the Future---and Saving Lives

El Nino, Climate Change, and the Global Ocean Observing System 203

Acknowledgements 219

About the Author 223

Notes 225

Index 285

Customer Reviews

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Sort by: Showing all of 5 Customer Reviews

  • Anonymous

    Posted May 2, 2012

    Deathlightclan

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    Posted May 1, 2012

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  • Anonymous

    Posted November 8, 2010

    Highly Recommended- Grabs your Attention and Captures your Interest

    Thus is a fascinating and compelling book for anyone with an inquisitive mind. Bruce Parker recounts historic events involving the sea poignantly as the blueprints for understanding the past and forecasting our future.

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    Posted March 22, 2011

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