Land of Wondrous Cold

Science and Nature

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Land of Wondrous Cold

The Race to Discover Antarctica and Unlock the Secrets of Its IceBy Gillen D'Arcy WoodNarrated by Nigel Anthony

Land of Wondrous Cold

Length8h 6m

About this audiobook

In this audiobook, Nigel Anthony narrates the gripping history of the polar continent, from the great discoveries of the nineteenth century to modern scientific breakthroughs Antarctica, the ice kingdom hosting the South Pole, looms large in the human imagination. The secrets of this vast frozen desert have long tempted explorers, but its brutal climate and glacial shores notoriously resist human intrusion. Land of Wondrous Cold tells a gripping story of the pioneering nineteenth-century voyages, when British, French, and American commanders raced to penetrate Antarctica's glacial rim for unknown lands beyond. These intrepid Victorian explorers—James Ross, Dumont D'Urville, and Charles Wilkes—laid the foundation for our current understanding of Terra Australis Incognita. Today, the white continent poses new challenges, as scientists race to uncover Earth's climate history, which is recorded in the south polar ice and ocean floor, and to monitor the increasing instability of the Antarctic ice cap, which threatens to inundate coastal cities worldwide. Interweaving the breakthrough research of the modern Ocean Drilling Program with the dramatic discovery tales of their Victorian forerunners, Gillen D'Arcy Wood describes Antarctica's role in a planetary drama of plate tectonics, climate change, and species evolution stretching back more than thirty million years. An original, multifaceted portrait of the polar continent emerges, illuminating our profound connection to Antarctica in its past, present, and future incarnations. A deep-time history of monumental scale, Land of Wondrous Cold brings the remotest of worlds within close reach—an Antarctica vital to both planetary history and human fortunes.

Audiobook details

GenreScience and Nature

Length8 hrs 6 mins

Narrated byNigel Anthony

FormatAudiobook

Publish dateMar 3, 2020

LanguageEnglish

Table of contents

1Opening Anno, Timeline, Introduction: Our Glacial Earth

9Part 3, Triumph, Chapter 8 - Seas of Grass

2Part 1, Beginnings, Chapter 1 - The Race is Joined

10Chapter 9 - How the Adelie Penguin Got Its Name

3Chapter 2 - Joseph Hooker Travels Through Time

11Chapter 10 - Wilkes Discovers a Continent

4Chapter 3 - In the Land of Fire

12Chapter 11 - Message in a Bottle

5Part 2, Trials, Chapter 4 - D'Urville Battles the Pack

13Chapter 12 - Ross in Wonderland

Show all chapters

6Chapter 5 - The Voyage of the Flying Fish

14Chapter 13 - Homecoming

7Chapter 6 - Madame D'Urville's Letter

15Postlude: Last Ice, Closing Anno

8Chapter 7 - Ross Falls Behind

About the author

Gillen D'Arcy Wood

View all by Gillen D'Arcy Wood

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