[...]... humans have, so it is vital to the health and welfare of society This book will help readers understand how Earth scientists conduct research and what this research might bring in the future FOS _Earth Science_DC.indd 19 2/8 /10 10 :56:22 AM FOS _Earth Science_DC.indd 20 2/8 /10 10 :56:23 AM 1 EXPLORING EARTH S DEPTHS Geologists of the 19 th century faced an interesting puzzle Earth seemed to have a great deal more mass than it should have had... were kind enough to pass along a research paper or help me track down some information xiii FOS _Earth Science_DC.indd 13 2/8 /10 10 :56 :19 AM FOS _Earth Science_DC.indd 14 2/8 /10 10 :56 :19 AM INTRODUCTION The flat Earth hypothesis tends to draw a giggle from students these days Everyone knows the world is round—photographs of Earth taken from space show a bluish sphere partially obscured with white clouds... on people’s lives, although the realm of human society does not generally extend beyond Earth s surface People who probe the frontiers of science get a more complete view of their world In the third century b.c.e., the Greek philosopher and mathematician Eratosthenes (ca 276 19 4 b.c.e.) calculated Earth s diameter by xv FOS _Earth Science_DC.indd 15 2/8 /10 10 :56:20 AM vi earth ScienceS Earth, as seen from space (Johnson Space Center/NASA)... This angle is about 1/ 50 of a full circle (which is 360 degrees) Eratosthenes reasoned that if Earth was a sphere, then his measurement indicated that the distance from Alexandria to Syene was about 1/ 50 the circumference of the planet By estimating this distance and multiplying by 50, Eratosthenes calculated the value of Earth s cir- FOS _Earth Science_DC.indd 16 2/8 /10 10 :56: 21 AM introduction vii cumference to be (in modern units) about 24,500 miles (39,500 km), a... anatomists, geneticists, physiologists, and mathematicians My broad interests and background have served me well as a science writer, giving me the confidence, or perhaps I should say chutzpah, to write a set of books on such a vast array of topics FOS _Earth Science_DC.indd 11 2/8 /10 10 :56 :18 AM ii earth ScienceS Seekers of knowledge satisfy their curiosity about how the world and its organisms work, but the applications of science are not limited... about soil and how to work the land than most geology professors, but he had diffi culty accepting the notion that the world was anything other than what it appeared to his eyes No argument could ever quite convince this skeptic Earth Sciences: Notable Research and Discoveries, one volume in the multivolume Frontiers of Science set, is about explorers and scientists who venture into the unknown frontiers of Earth science and quite often run... figure quite close to the modern value, 24,900 miles (40 ,16 1 km) The Italian navigator Christopher Columbus (14 51 15 06) believed the world was round and sailed west from Spain in an attempt to reach the East Indies, the site of valuable trade that at the time could only be reached by arduous land journeys across eastern Europe and Asia (In the 15 th century Ottoman Turks had cut off most of the land routes.) Skeptics scoffed at Columbus’s idea, but not because they thought the... To improve the situation, researchers must achieve a better understanding of how water is distributed in the planet, how FOS _Earth Science_DC.indd 18 2/8 /10 10 :56:22 AM introduction i it flows, and how to make the best use of what is available Chapter 5 discusses this important frontier of Earth science Chapter 6 finishes the book with a topic that is a perennial favorite of students Earthquakes are greatly feared and aptly so; they also instill... required to produce them FOS _Earth Science_DC.indd 12 2/8 /10 10 :56 :19 AM ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thanks go to Frank K Darmstadt, executive editor at Facts On File, and his staff for all their hard work, which I admit I sometimes made a little bit harder Thanks also to Tobi Zausner for researching and locating so many great photographs I also appreciate the time and effort of a large number of researchers who were... waves of earthquakes This chapter discusses these techniques and how researchers have used them to support Wiechert’s ideas and to make new discoveries about what lies beneath Earth s surface IntRoduCtIon The radius of Earth is about 3,950 miles (6,370 km) This means that the distance between Earth s surface and its center is approximately the same as the distance between Washington, D.C., and Paris, . y0 w1 h0" alt="" EARTH SCIENCES FOS _Earth Science_DC.indd 1 2/8 /10 10 :56: 01 AM FOS _Earth Science_DC.indd 2 2/8 /10 10 :56:02 AM KYLE KIRKLAND, PH.D. Notable Research and Discoveries EARTH SCIENCES FOS _Earth. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 97 8-0 - 816 0-7 44 2-6 (hardcover) ISBN 97 8 -1 -4 38 1- 2 96 8-6 (e-book) 1. Geology. 2. Earth sciences. I. Title QE5 01. K527 2 010 550—dc22 2009020269 Facts. Discoveries EARTH SCIENCES FOS _Earth Science_DC.indd 3 2/8 /10 10 :56 :14 AM EARTH SCIENCES: Notable Research and Discoveries Copyright © 2 010 by Kyle Kirkland, Ph.D. All rights reserved. No part of this book