Henry Stommel

The Gulf Stream: A Physical and Dynamical Description (Second Edition) offers a comprehensive exploration of one of the ocean’s most iconic and complex phenomena. While the name "Gulf Stream" is widely recognized, this book provides an in-depth examination of its physical structure, dynamics, and the scientific theories that explain its behavior. Designed for a wide audience of physical scientists, it bridges the gap between general familiarity and specialized understanding, presenting the most thorough discussion available on the subject. Complementing foundational texts like The Oceans and Dynamical Oceanography, this volume focuses exclusively on the Gulf Stream, offering detailed insights into its role in global weather systems, oceanic currents, and broader oceanographic studies. This second edition stands as an authoritative resource for those seeking to understand the intricate workings of this grand natural phenomenon. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1965.

The Gulf Stream: A Physical and Dynamical Description (Second Edition) offers a comprehensive exploration of one of the ocean’s most iconic and complex phenomena. While the name "Gulf Stream" is widely recognized, this book provides an in-depth examination of its physical structure, dynamics, and the scientific theories that explain its behavior. Designed for a wide audience of physical scientists, it bridges the gap between general familiarity and specialized understanding, presenting the most thorough discussion available on the subject. Complementing foundational texts like The Oceans and Dynamical Oceanography, this volume focuses exclusively on the Gulf Stream, offering detailed insights into its role in global weather systems, oceanic currents, and broader oceanographic studies. This second edition stands as an authoritative resource for those seeking to understand the intricate workings of this grand natural phenomenon. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1965.

Hundreds of islands that once appeared on nautical charts and general atlases are now known to have vanished -- or never even existed. How were they detected in the first place? Henry Stommel, an oceanographer and senior scientist at Massachusetts' Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, chronicles his fascinating research in documenting the false discoveries of these phantom islands. British and American Hydrographic Offices compiled lists for navigators of reported dangers corresponding to the islands' supposed locations, which formed the basis for Stommel's surveys. These tales, which unfold according to location, blend historical and geographic background with intriguing anecdotal material. They relate how the small land formations came to be charted, who reported them, who eradicated them, and why some of them endured for so long. The chronicle of navigational errors, optical illusions, wishful thinking, and other mishaps is illustrated by scores of black-and-white images, including two 19th-century Admiralty charts of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, where most of the sightings took place.

The purpose of this work is to offer a clear physical explanation of the Coriolis force. Meterologists and oceanographers have invoked this somewhat mysterious force to explain the apparent equilibrium of a system of wind patterns or ocean currents in the presence of horizontal pressure gradients so that the velocity of fluid lies among isobars. The force is named for Gustave Gaspard Coriolis (1792-1843), a French mathematician who studied its effects. In order to make the mathematical concepts more tangible, the authors have prepared a series of computer exercises, written in BASIC for the IMB-AT with Enhanced Color Display, that can be copied piece by piece. For those who prefer not to make up their own copy of the program, there are instructions on how to order a pre-made copy in the Introduction of this book. These programs will provide an interactive tool for experimenting with a variety of problems involving the idea of Coriolis force. "An Introduction to the Coriolis Force" will be most useful for studying the hydrodynamics of the ocean and atmosphere. It also presents many aspects of classical mechanics/dynamics physics. Its straightforward explanations and unique accessibility should help explain the complexities of this mysterious force, about which many scientists have had lingering uncertainties since it was first described in 1831.

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