Innehållsförteckning för Summer 2019 från The Explorers Journal

Most nights, I read the Harry Potter books to my twin boys. What captures their imagination changes on a nightly basis, but one thing they’ve been interested in recently is the fabled sorcerers’ school in the series, Hogwarts. While we may not have floating ceilings or whomping willows at 46 East 70th Street, I can’t help but feel like The Explorers Club is a grown-up version of Hogwarts. If that seems like a stretch for you, let me tell you why: It’s because we explorers encounter magic daily—the magic of imagination that comes with dreaming of daring, inspiring, and often difficult, expeditions followed by that magical sensation of accomplishment when you’ve done what you set out to do. What is going to the Moon or diving to the deepest point…

Fleming Key is a 3.2-kilometer-long island off the northwest corner of Key West, connected to it by a bridge over a small channel. This site is the home of the U.S. Army’s Special Forces Underwater Operations School. As a tenant command of the Naval Air Station Key West Annex at Trumbo Point, it is inaccessible to civilians without military clearance. It appears that something else lurks in those waters surrounding Fleming Key with potential implications for civilian divers in the Florida Keys. First reported in 2003, cases of marine envenomation occur similar to those caused by minute box jellyfish called Irukandji, natural inhabitants of northern Australian waters. Irukandji syndrome characteristically has a delayed onset of 5 to 40 minutes after the sting and causes extreme pain, difficulty breathing, vomiting, burning…

46 EAST 70TH STREET, NEW YORK, NY 10021 WWW.EXPLORERS.ORG | 212-628-8383 AFRICA Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka gladys@ctph.org ALASKA Mead Treadwell meadwell@alaska.net ATLANTA Steve Pigott jagter@msn.com AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND Todd Tai todd@mivision.com.au CANADA George Kourounis chapterchair@explorersclub.ca CENTRAL & SOUTH AMERICA Jimmy McSparron jimmy@trekkingnut.com CHICAGO/GREAT LAKES Robert A. Shuchman, PhD shuchman@mtu.edu EAST & SOUTH ASIA Steven R. Schwankert steven@sinoscuba.com FLORIDA Aida “Idee” Belau chair@floridaexplorersclub.org GEORGE ROGERS CLARK Leonard A. Weakley, Jr. lweakley@rendigs.com GREAT BRITAIN Eleuthera du Breuil eleutheradb@hotmail.com GREATER PIEDMONT James Borton asiareview@yahoo.com HAWAII Gary Bowersox mrgary77@aol.com HONG KONG Michael E. Barth mebarth@explorershk.org NEW ENGLAND Gregory Deyermenjian paititi@alumni.clarku.edu NORTH PACIFIC ALASKA Joshua C. Lewis & Victoria M. Becwar-Lewis npac1@me.com NORTHERN CALIFORNIA Stephen E. Smith, PhD ecnca@oceanearth.org NORWAY…

at THEEXPLORERSJOURNAL.ORG AVAILABLE IN PRINT AND AS A DIGITAL PUBLICATION From vast ocean depths to the frontiers of outer space, THE EXPLORERS JOURNAL offers firsthand reporting from those pushing the limits of knowledge and human endurance. Founded in 1904 to promote exploration “by all means possible,” The Explorers Club is an international organization dedicated to the advancement of field exploration and scientific inquiry. Among our members are leading pioneers in oceanography, mountaineering, archaeology, and the planetary and environmental sciences.…

It has been 47 years since Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt snapped that now iconic image of Earth—the Blue Marble—en route to the Moon on December 7, 1972. Shot with a Hasselblad camera at an altitude of 29,000 kilometers above the Earth’s surface, the image was among the first to viscerally convey just how much of our planet is made up of water. In fact, water covers 71 percent of Earth’s surface and represents 99 percent of its living space. And, as researchers have pointed out, it was in our oceans that life as we know it began some 3.4 billion years ago, well before life on land took shape a mere 400 million years ago. Water also accounts for 60 percent of the adult human body. In short, we…

IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF JOSEPH DALTON HOOKER BY SEAMUS O’BRIEN 400 PP • LONDON: ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW, 2019 • ISBN-10: 1842466569 • ISBN-13: 978-1842466568 • $55 Nineteenth-century botanical explorer and director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Joseph Dalton Hooker has been called one of the great, if not greatest, naturalists of his time—having contributed to a number of important scientific expeditions, among them a journey to Antarctica aboard the HMS Erebus under the command of Captain James Clark Ross. Some of Hooker’s most important work, however, was carried out in the Himalayas, where in 1847, he embarked on a three-year journey through Sikkim, Bhutan, and Assam, often traveling by elephant to collect his plants and seeds. A century and a half later, Irish botanist Seamus O’Brien, director of…

John G. Alexander • Alan B. Albright • Robert J. Atwater • Capt. Norman L. Baker* • Barbara Ballard • Robert D. Ballard, PhD • Samuel B. Ballen* • Mark Gregory Bayuk • Daniel A. Bennett • Josh Bernstein • Bruce Blanchard • John R. Bockstoce, DPhil • Jack Aaron Boggs • Bjorn G. Bolstad* • Capt. Bruce M. Bongar, PhD • Brian M. Boom, PhD • Jill Botway • Garrett R. Bowden • Capt. Lawson W. Brigham, PhD, USCG (ret.) • Harry Davis Brooks • Lt. Col. Jewell Richard Browder* • August “Augie” Brown* • John C.D. Bruno • Lee R. Bynum* • Virginia Castagnola Hunter • Julianne M. Chase, PhD • James M. Chester* • James Thomas Chirurg • Maj. Gen. Arthur W. Clark, USAF (ret.) • Capt.…

JOIN THE “EXPLORERS IMMORTALS” AND ENGRAVE YOUR NAME OR DEDICATION IN STONE ON NEW PAVERS FOR THE LEFRAK TERRACE AT EXPLORERS CLUB HEADQUARTERS. ADORN OUR LANDMARK OUTDOOR SPACE AND HELP PAY FOR URGENT WORK FOR PHASE II RENOVATIONS BY MAKING A TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATION OF $2,500 PER DEDICATED PAVER TO OUR LOWELL THOMAS BUILDING FUND. THE EXPLORERS CLUB WOULD LIKE TO THANK THE FOLLOWING WHO HAVE PURCHASED A PAVER: Robert Ashton, James H. Alexander, John G. Alexander, Darlene T. Anderson, Jeanne D. Andlinger, Barbara Annan, Robert J. Aresty, Atlanta Chapter, Robert J. Atwater, Norman L. Baker, Andreas Bender, Josh Bernstein, John Bierley, Bruce Blanchard, John R. Bockstoce, Brian M. Boom, John R. Boreske Jr., Gary W. Bowersox, Lawson W. Brigham, Diane Britz-Lotti, Julianne M. Chase, James M. Clash, Allen S. Counter,…

Harrison Schmitt geologist-moonwalker AS PART OF APOLLO 17 IN 1972, SCIENTIST-ASTRONAUT HARRISON SCHMITT BECAME THE LAST MAN TO STEP ON THE MOON. A GEOLOGIST, SCHMITT, NOW 84, IS ALSO A FORMER SENATOR FROM NEW MEXICO. CONTINUING IN OUR CELEBRATION OF THIS APOLLO ANNIVERSARY YEAR, WE CAUGHT UP WITH THE MOONWALKER—ONE OF ONLY 12—TO DISCUSS ALL THINGS LUNAR. JC: Sitting atop the Saturn V rocket before launch, did you experience any fear? HS: The main way to deal with fear is to be prepared to handle whatever comes your way. Waiting for liftoff, I felt no concern whatsoever because of all the training we did. In fact, I got a little sleep while we waited on the pad [laughing]. As you probably know, 30 seconds before launch we had a 2-hour,…