impact geology

Book review – Mysteries of the Deep: How Seafloor Drilling Expeditions Revolutionized Our Understanding of Earth History

7-minute read
keywords: earth sciences, history of science, oceanography

Many advances in the earth sciences have come from one particular feat of technology and engineering: deep-sea drilling. Or to be more precise, it is the sediment cores thus extracted from the seafloor that have offered a wealth of information. In Mysteries of the Deep, retired geologist James Lawrence Powell gives a very readable whistlestop tour of the many remarkable insights these drilling expeditions have given us. In the process, he provides a microcosm of how science advances and how scientists change their minds, or sometimes fail to, in the face of new evidence.

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Book review – Terrestrial Impact Structures: The TanDEM-X Atlas (2-Volume Set)

7-minute read

When Google Earth first launched in 2001, I, like many others, found myself poring over satellite imagery. Identifying familiar and unfamiliar landmarks always brought a certain thrill, and spotting craters was part of that. But to properly map impact structures, you need a better dataset. The stunningly produced Terrestrial Impact Structures is a large-format atlas that maps all currently accepted ones, plus some likely candidates, and makes for an instant must-have reference work for any geology or astronomy library.

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