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The Mediterranean was a Desert: A Voyage of the Glomar Challenger Hardcover – International Edition, October 21, 1983

by Kenneth Jinghwa Hsü (Author)

4.2 13 ratings

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The famous geological research ship Glomar Challenger was a radically new instrument that revolutionized earth science in the same sense that the cyclotron revolutionized nuclear physics, and its deep-sea drilling voyages, conducted from 1968 through 1983, were some of the great scientific adventures of our time. Beginning with the vessel's first cruises, which lent support to the idea of continental drift, the Challenger played a key part in the widely publicized plate-tectonics revolution and its challenge to more conventional theories. Here the leading oceanographer and earth scientist Kenneth Hs offers an intensely personal account of the experiences of the ship's diverse crews--the sailors, drillers, marine technicians, and scientists who braved not only the ocean's resistance to surrendering its secrets but also the difficulties of balky machinery, physical illness, close quarters, and all-too-human temperaments. But the intellectual rewards of the journeys also abounded, and Hs is the ideal writer to convey the excitement with which he and other crew scientists pursued them. The quintessential insider, he offers biographical sketches, humorous anecdotes, background information from the history of geology, and excerpts from the ship's daily operational report--all skillfully combined with a narrative history of the ship's explorations in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans and the polar seas.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Princeton University Press (October 21, 1983)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 216 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0691082936
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0691082936
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.88 x 0.7 x 8.8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #4,057,254 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #34,463 in Earth Sciences (Books)

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4.2 13 ratings

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connie

Hard-won Discoveries

Reviewed in the United States on April 1, 2016

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The research activities, good and bad as recorded, leave the reader with a great respect for the scientists and ship crews. The author includes occasional details about the difficulties of communication with families and coworkers when the internet was not yet available.

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Harry Eagar

Much to ponder from this discovery

Reviewed in the United States on August 26, 2012

This little book leaves a reader with a lot to think about.

For one thing, geologist Kenneth Hsu never mentions where the Glomar Challenger came from - it was one of the devil's offspring of the Cold War, one of only a very few CIA harumscarum projects to provide any actual benefits to the citizenry, although only after the CIA had given up the ship.

I doubt today any scientific author would fail to mention the origins of the ship, but Hsu wrote in 1983, and attitudes have loosened up since then.

The voyage took place back in 1970, and now I suppose everyone with even a passing interest in geology thinks of a dried up Mediterranean Sea as "something we have always known about," the way we have "always known" that continents drifted.

But the discovery that the Mediterranean had dried out - the proof lies in certain types of evaporite rocks that can only form in the dry - came not so long after the clinching evidence for plate tectonics was published. Both findings were met with skepticism, even incredulity at first, but while some theories are hard to swallow, the evidence for a dried out Mediterranean was straightforward enough, once it was obtained.

The drama of "The Mediterranean Was a Desert" comes from how difficult it was to get those drill cores.

Deepwater drilling, too, has come a long way since 1970.

Last, the interest of this particular discovery applies to concerns about climate. It takes a long time to dry out a sea over a mile deep using nothing but sun and wind.

But it is now known that it happened over and over again, and within a comparatively short time, just a few million years.

Continents drift at a slow rate, but it turns out big seas can dry up quickly, and given nothing more than normal variation in inputs. The repeated drying and refilling of the Mediterranean was roughly coincident with the evolution of Homo from an ancestral non-humanoid primate.

Hsu's tale makes all the panic about climatic changes in the past thousand years sound like children being afraid of monsters under the bed.

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Simon Mark Greer

Good job..good science

Reviewed in the United States on November 14, 2018

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We found Atlantis/Eden in 2004 , ...off ..the coast of Cyprus.

Google it! CYPRUS EDEN ATLANTIS

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MIKE G.

I wouldn't recommend it to non-geologists

Reviewed in the United States on October 25, 2016

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A factual account of the Mediterranean leg of the Deep Sea Drilling project.It is written as a people story and a science discovery story. As a professional geologist, I was very interested in the science. I wouldn't recommend it to non-geologists.

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Bonam Pak

4.5 Stars for Virtually Hidden Science, Resolving the Construct of a Separation of Continents

Reviewed in the United States on March 31, 2008

I read the 1987 reprint of the 1983 published, 1982 written book about the science cruise of the Glomar Challenger in the Mediterranean in 1970. Described is the scientists' step by step realization that this sea fell victim to dessication some 5.3 million years ago - and will so once more in some 2 - 3 million years, when the Strait of Gibraltar will get naturally plugged again. Not to speak of Africa colliding further with Europe, completely causing the Mediterranean to vanish a further long time after that. Both of which are probably the reasons why that scientific knowledge from some two generations ago isn't eagerly taught today: Both implies further that there isn't really a continental separation. Europe and Africa (and actually Asia) being one continent isn't really politically profitable for the West for the time being. Even though there remains no doubt about this long and officially established fact, people seeing me reading this book expected it to be something "esoteric" or a science fiction novel. This book is probably dated, yet to me and most people, many of whom weren't even born yet at the time of the ship's voyage, it's still fresh news, so I will not subtract a star for potentially accumulated dust, this would be my guessing only anyway.

Half a star I do subtract after all. With 188 regular text pages (including pictures) this is a rather thin book. Yet it could be much thinner indeed, if it wouldn't have been written in a travelogue style. In principle, I do not mind not just reading about the unadorned scientific results, but also about the way, the scientists found out about them, if it is written suspensefully. It is - but very, very detailed. I don't REALLY need to know all about the movies the sciencetist were watching in their free time, who got sick with what, etc. On the one hand, it makes this book a very human endeavor, on the other hand, it's a bit time thieving considering that some of us are on a tight schedule of reading time.

A similar quest may be read about the Black Sea in Noah's Flood: The New Scientific Discoveries About The Event That Changed History . If you are interested in the (highly exaggerated) issue of the flooded ancient ancient Mediterranean valley culture(s), read Before the Pharaohs: Egypt's Mysterious Prehistory and/or the even more outrageously fantastic version in Technology of the Gods: The Incredible Sciences of the Ancients . (The latter two are compilation books of various topics.) However sometimes, little known reality defeats broadly known fantasy: From 1928 till the 1950s one of those visionary crazy Germans made it his lifework to infect a lot of people and regimes with the idea to artificially close up the Strait of Gibraltar and lower the sea level in the Western Mediterranean 100 meters (328 feet) and in the eastern part 200 meters (656 feet) to gain a lot of new land and effectively merge Europe with Africa. This mega project was once known as Atlantropa (name of the "new" continent excluding Asia). Currently, I can't find any book written in English about that, but if you overstand German, you may check out "Atlantropa: Weltbauen am Mittelmeer - ein Architektentraum der Moderne" (literally: "Atlantropa: Worldbuilding at the Mediterranean - a Modern Age Architects' Dream"). You may have to swap to amazon.de for availability. Be aware that there's a revised edition of 2007, only this one including a DVD with a documentary on it. (Of course, be aware of the DVD's EU country code.)

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Charles Bookman

A highly readable account of the role of field work in scientific discovery

Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2017

Of all the exciting 20th century geological discoveries, one of the most astonishing was that the Mediterranean Sea had more than once become cut off from the Atlantic. Between 20 and 5 million years ago, it suffered periods of isolation, when the sea evaporated. The geologic record includes widespread layers of salt overlain with other sedimentary layers, indicating sequential evaporation and then refilling. Imagine a giant cascade at Gibraltar, a waterfall with volume and force a hundred times that of Niagara! Dr. Ken Hsü was co-chief scientist on the scientific drill ship Glomar Challenger in 1970 when the salt layers under the sea were drilled and sampled. The news that the Mediterranean once looked like the Sahara caused a global sensation. In clear prose written for generalists and with numerous illustrations, this little book tells the big story of the scientific expedition. Read more at bookmanreader.blogspot.com

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The Wizard

Dull rendition of the 1970 voyage of a deep sea research vessel

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 24, 2007

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I bought this book because I thought that the travels and work of the Glomar Challenger should prove interesting and also because I was looking for some more in depth knowledge of the evidence supporting the Messinian Salinity Crisis. I have recently read ` Discovery of Atlantis - the Startling case for the Island of Cyprus' by Robert Sarmast. The author of that work suggests that there is evidence to support the idea that the Mediterranean was once dry and that there was an isthmus at Gibraltar. Indeed the voyage of the Glomar Challenger did find now widely accepted evidence that the Med' ran dry and it's current configuration is the result of the inundation of the Atlantic through the opening of Gibraltar. However, there is no evidence that this occurred within the timescales that Sarmast needs to make his theory of Atlantis hold water (excuse the pun).

So what of this book? It is a fairly run of the mill, blow by blow account of the voyage made in 1970 by deep sea research vessel Glomar Challenger to explore the seafloor of the Med. You have to have more than a passing interest in seafloor drilling and coring to get anything from it. Kenneth Hsu does not write in a particularly appealing or inspirational manner, his asides and attempts at adding a human interest are pretty flat and dull. There is virtually no discussion of the people involved other than 2 or 3 of his immediate colleagues.

I was also totally taken aback by one section where he suggests that in 2 to 3 million years humankind might take advantage of another salinity crisis in the Med and we will see hydro plants and oil exploration! I hope he was joking. If there are descendents of humankind on Earth in 2 to 3 million years then I very much doubt they will have any interest in prehistoric energy sources.

In summary, the book does the job of describing the voyage, the drill sites and the finds of significance, but there is no entertainment value here at all. If you need to know what was found and the conclusions derived I would read the Epilogue and not bother with the rest. Be warned that this is not popular science. Personally, I think a version of the voyage written by one of the drilling crew would have been better.

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