Books That Make You Explore Antarctica, Facing Peril with a Man Whose Expeditions May Reveal an 8th Continent
When you read books, you do so from the safety of your home, maybe your back porch, batting away a few summer mosquitos or, in the fall, cozied up in front of the fireplace. It’s amazing how books transport us to those perilous places, both real and imaginary, and reveal worlds that most of us can only dream about.
In his book Mighty Bad Land, author, geologist and explorer Bruce Luyendyk takes readers to the last wilderness on Earth: Antarctica, and the evidence for Zealandia, the “lost 8th continent” long ago broken off from Antarctica and sunk below the waves. But, unlike most recent books on Antarctica, the reader becomes embedded with Bruce Luyendyk’s team and experiences firsthand the challenges, companionship, failures, bravery, cowardice, and success that scientific research in an unforgiving place brings to light.
Bruce Luyendyk, Distinguished Professor Emeritus from UC Santa Barbara, was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society of America, the American Geophysical Union, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2016, the US Board on Geographic Names honored the author by naming summit 1070 in Antarctica Mount Luyendyk. His prior research in marine geophysics included the exploration of deep-sea black smokers—or, hydrothermal vents—using the deep submersible ALVIN off western Mexico. For this, he and colleagues shared the Newcomb Cleveland Prize of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
