Into the Heart of Our World: A Journey to the Center of the Earth: A Remarkable Voyage of Scientific Discovery

by David Whitehouse

Overview

An enthralling and extraordinary adventure vividly charting the mysteries of the deep Earth, the history of our planet, and the latest discoveries about its inner core.

The journey to the center of the earth is a voyage like no other we can imagine. Over 3000 km below the earth's surface, an extraordinary inner world the size of Mars awaits us. Dive through the molten iron of the outer core and eventually you will reach a solid sphere —an iron-clad world held within a metal sea and unattached to anything above. At the earth's core is the history of our planet written in temperature and pressure, crystals and minerals ...

Our planet appears tranquil from outer space. And yet the arcs of volcanoes, the earthquake zones, and the auroral glow rippling above our heads are testimony to the remarkable happenings within the earth’s core. For thousands of years these phenomena were explained in legend and myth. Only in recent times has the brave new science of seismology emerged. One hundred and fifty years after the extraordinary, imaginative feat of Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth, David Whitehouse embarks on a voyage of scientific discovery into the heart of our world.

Seismologists today reveal a planet astonishingly buried within a planet. We watch as supercomputers convert signals from the ground into three-dimensional scans of subterranean continents. We will visit laboratories where scientists attempt to reproduce the intense conditions at the center of the Earth, travel down the throat of a volcano, look into the deepest hole ever drilled, and imagine a voyage through enormous crystals of iron...all at the center of our incredible Earth.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781605989594
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	02/01/2016
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Dr David Whitehouse is a scientist and journalist. He is a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and a regular broadcaster on science-related matters for the BBC and Sky News. Asteroid 4036 Whitehouse is named after him. Follow him on Twitter: @dr_david_w

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations xi

Introduction 1

1 The Archive of the Earth 5

2 'Descend, bold traveller' 8

3 Underworld 26

4 Birthmarks 31

5 The Survivors 44

6 The Messengers 56

7 Tenham 68

8 The Butler and the Housekeeper 71

9 Death on the Ice 86

10 Superdeep 90

11 The Hansbach 98

12 The Pressure Principle 111

13 Splinters of the Stars 121

14 D-Double-Prime 124

15 Dark Matter 131

16 Borderlands 134

17 Plumes 140

18 'The old boy beamed upon me' 148

19 The Protector 152

20 Magnetic Dreams 160

21 The Terrella 169

22 Reversal 182

23 Inside the Inside 199

24 Stranger in a Strange Land 211

25 The Crystal Forest 223

26 Other Worlds, Other Journeys 233

27 Journey's End 243

28 Playthings of the Earth 250

Index 257

Editorial Reviews

12/07/2015
Guided by the most up-to-date scientific findings, British science journalist Whitehouse (Renaissance Genius) commands an imagined voyage into Earth’s interior. He frames his journey with Jules Verne’s 1864 novel, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and interweaves elements of Verne’s work into his own narrative. After a quick discussion of Verne’s life and oeuvre, Whitehouse presents a quick synopsis of our current understanding of the Earth’s layers and then descends into the Earth’s crust as far as he is physically able—in his case, going down into the Boulby potash mine in northeast England. Filling his pages with curious facts, brief biographies, and scientific theories about Earth’s inner structure, Whitehouse proffers explanations of Earth’s formation, the origin of the Moon, and more. For instance, he thoroughly discusses the Earth’s magnetic field, reassuring readers that a flip of the field—which last happened about 41,000 years ago—is unlikely to happen anytime soon. Whitehouse surveys the baffling nature of Earth’s solid core and concludes his work, fittingly, with discussions of the planet’s possible demise as well as those of other planets near and far. This is a fascinating investigation of geologic history. Illus. Agent: Jessica Purdue, Orion Publishing. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

"A tour-de-force, utterly compelling. Whitehouse is terrific."

The Financial Times

"Whitehouse intertwines facts with compelling retellings of research expeditions and throwbacks to Verne’s classic tale. Into the Heart of Our World is a great introduction to the mysteries of Earth's depths that will leave readers clamoring for a more in-depth trip into the planet."

Science News

"Outstanding."

The Daily Telegraph

"A treasure-trove."

New Scientist

"A treasure-trove."

New Scientist

The author's brimming passion for his subject is obvious. This is an excellent prospect of the many people who enjoyed Dava Sobel's Longitude, and deserves to be widely read.”

The Guardian

An efficient and perceptive introduction to Galileo's personality and historic scientific achievements. Whitehouse's volume should prove highly attractive to his students and recreational readers of scientific history.

Booklist

2015-10-22
In the spirit of Jules Verne's popular classic Journey to the Center of the Earth, Royal Astronomical Society fellow Whitehouse (The Sun: A Biography, 2005, etc.) describes how modern advances in geology provide insight into the evolution and dynamic structure of the Earth. "Astronomers often say we are made of stardust and are children of the stars," writes the author in this enthusiastic review of scientific discovery, "but the Earth is no less our parent." He explains that probes of the asteroid Vesta by a NASA spacecraft offer clues to the original building blocks of our own planet. At the same time, 4.2 billion-year-old rock samples have been found in western Australia with an isotope structure that appears to indicate the existence of surprisingly cool surface waters on Earth. Whitehouse reviews developments in seismology that have allowed scientists to infer the composition of the Earth below its crust by measuring the propagation of waves during earthquakes. "The Lisbon earthquake of 1755 marked a turning point in our understanding of the Earth," he writes. Collating measurements in different places have given scientists the opportunities to fully understand how earthquakes are created by waves beneath the surface of the Earth caused by shifting masses. In the 1890s, scientists were able to measure the speed at which different below-the-surface waves propagated, and improvement in the sensitivity of measuring devices led to the detection of an earthquake in Japan from a monitoring station in Germany. By the 1950s, advances in material science and quantum physics revealed the existence of new crystalline structures, and a mysteriously rotating iron ball was discovered at Earth's center. The author speculates that this below-the-surface activity not only creates earthquakes and volcanoes, but may also have played a part in the evolution of life by creating the necessary material and environment. Whitehouse takes readers on a richly rewarding journey through space and time in this scientific travelogue.

Kirkus Reviews