Ocean Worlds coverWith the recent report by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory that NASA’s Curiosity Rover is sending back information regarding not just evidence of ancient lakes once having existed on Mars but how they affected the Martian landscape as well, I thought it might be a good time to point out that Ocean Worlds; The Story of Seas on Earth and Other Planets by Jan Zalasiewicz and Mark Williams is scheduled to be published by Oxford University Press this coming January.

Of course, Ocean Worlds will contain far more information about the seas found on this planet than those that could once have been found (and perhaps someday still might be) on others; how Earth’s oceans formed and evolved, how oceanic biomes function, and how most every thing that happens in and to the oceans today affect not only the life it contains but the life of the entire planet as well.

Nevertheless, thanks to such projects as Curiosity, our field of view regarding oceans – not to mention a host of other things as well – will need to expand. Thus it’s best to begin reading now to be as prepared as possible when new information reaches us; whether it be about the bottom of the Pacific or the Murray formation on Mars.