Corfield concentrates on the science of the expedition without neglecting the human relations of the scientifics. One notable chapter is called “The Library of Time,” in which the biological remains dredged from the ocean body, tiny creations which would eventually yield the details of earth’s climatic and oceanographic history: For the geologist and oceanographer there is simply nothing to match the detailed information trapped in the sediment of the deep sea; it is the library of time. [p. 135].
Corfield next describes the nature of the Antarctic Convergence, cold currents including melting icebergs making Antarctica the earth’s coldest continent [e.g. -129ºF at Vostok on 7/21/83.]
[These subsurface cores are analogous to the ice cores taken from polar regions that constitutes the historical climatic archives, a different kind of library of time, as shown in the next chapter “The Lost World”.