Antarctica: The Blue Continent [Hardcover]

David McGonigal (Author), Dr. Lynn Woodworth (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 6, 2003

Illustrated guide to Antarctica's environment, geography, wildlife, and history.

Antarctica: The Blue Continent is a superbly illustrated and easy-to-understand book that reveals this polar region's ruthless majesty and natural beauty.

The environment is Earth's harshest, coldest, most inhospitable climate. A staggering 98% of the continent is covered with ice averaging 1.4 miles in depth; 90% of the world's ice is found in there. In spite of the cold and ice, Antarctica's shores and waters are home to an amazing variety of vegetation and indigenous wildlife-seals, sea lions, whales, penguins and sea birds-that have evolved in extraordinary ways to adapt to their unforgiving habitat. The book features natural phenomena such as a glacier made of jagged, Jurassic-era rock instead of ice, and entire mountain ranges filled to their peaks with snow.

In the chapters on polar exploration, Antarctica profiles Captain Cook, Roald Amundsen, Shackleton, Scott, and others. Readers will experience why this continent has inspired so much effort and heroism in the quest to discover its secrets.

This book is a concise version of the authors' 608-page Antarctica and the Arctic.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Arguably the best single volume on Antarctica available today.... A truly superb production. (Nancy Bent Booklist )

About the Author

David McGonigal is an award-winning travel writer, photographer and fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. His writing and research on Antarctica combine academic accuracy, journalistic realism and a seasoned traveler's unbounded enthusiasm for the world's coldest, wildest places.

Dr. Lynn Woodworth is a wildlife researcher. She has traveled extensively throughout both polar regions.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Firefly Books (September 6, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1552977064
• ISBN-13: 978-1552977064
• Product Dimensions: 12 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #967,245 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

David McGonigal was born in Sydney, Australia though has lived around the world, most recently on ships in the polar regions.

After completing Arts and Law degrees (largely majoring in motorcycle road racing) David dropped out of the legal profession to ride around the world and returned to Australia years later as a travel writer/photographer. That career progressed to contributions to magazines and newspapers worldwide, several awards and some fifteen books from "Wilderness Australia" (his first) to a Thai cookbook and adventure guides. On three successive years, assignments took him to all seven continents. He's a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a Life Member and Past-President of the Australian Society of Travel Writers.

After his first visit to Antarctica in 1995 he became polar impassioned and worked on projects with Sir Edmund Hillary and others. He led his first Antarctic trip in 1999 and has been back every year since. He has visited the polar regions more than 100 times - often as Expedition Leader. In 1997 he briefly rode in Antarctica and so became the first person ever to motorcycle on seven continents (and through all 24 time zones). He's SCUBA dived, white-water rafted and sailed throughout the world (most memorably through SE Asia, Tahiti and to Cape Horn) and now part-owns a motor sailplane. He has visited Russia and Lapland in winter, travelled the NW and NE Passages, and motorcycled to the top of Alaska and Norway (via Siberia) as well as visited both sides of Antarctica. David was co-author of the 608-page "Antarctica - the Complete Story" and the smaller "Antarctica - The Blue Continent" (now translated into German, Dutch, Estonian, French, Italian, Russian and Japanese) as well as the newish 400-page "Antarctica - Secrets of the Southern Ocean". His photographs have been exhibited around the world.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great coffee table type book on Antarctica, March 22, 2007

By 

S. Belanger (Newport, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Antarctica: The Blue Continent (Hardcover)

This large format style book has excellent photographs, illustrations, and maps on virtually every page in addition to text and related detailed captions.

It is broken down into four parts - the Antarctic environment, regions, wildlife, and exploration history. Each of these four main parts are broken down further into smaller topics. For instance the wildlife section has several pages detailed to each animal type (whales, seals, penguins, seabirds, etc) and then broken down further into each specific species of them by seperate text section with stats and a map showing that specific animal location around Antarctica. The exploration section similiarly is broken down into smaller timeframes (three timeframes) of discovery and expeditions.

Ovearall a great overview of everything Antarctica. Great book for reading and also for just for browsing through.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent overview., July 25, 2007

By 

B. McFarland "mcfarlab" (Someplace, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Antarctica: The Blue Continent (Hardcover)

This book is full of gorgeous pictures and well-written segments that provide information in easily digested and very informative pieces. It covers topics like geology, ancient and present day ecology, geography, flora and fauna, really everything you could ask for. It would make a good reference for schoolwork that doesn't need to be highly scientific or extremely detailed. If it had that kind of additional detail, I'd give it the last star, but then it would likely be twice as thick and much more difficult to read. For the person who just wants to learn more about antarctica, this is the book for you and probably a five star purchase!

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Everything you would like to know and see, August 31, 2006

By 

E. M. Colin - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Antarctica: The Blue Continent (Hardcover)

Great book including history, geology and fauna of antarctica. Excellent photographs. Very recommendable book for a cheap price for everyone who is interested in the blue continent.