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Man lives on the earth with geological consent, writes Simon Winchester, author of "Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms,and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories." Winchester has written extensively about geology and weighs in on the Japan quake and whether we are prepared for disaster here in the United States. He says that the earth is littered with the ruins of cities built in precarious locations and further, that it is the instability of the planet which has created some of its most beautiful features (and most coveted property).

Simon Winchester gives an account of the history, geography, science, and cultural influence of the Atlantic Ocean.  Atlantic: The Biography of an Ocean tells the story of this great body of water and it’s connection to the Vikings, the Irish, the Chinese, Christopher Columbus, the Portuguese and Spanish.

Anticipating the future is a classic (and possibly uniquely) human pastime. For as long as humans have kept records of the past, we have also tried to predict our future...and in so doing, control our destiny. Why do we cling to these predictions? The end of the world, the end of humanity, even our future fortunes…why do we anticipate so much?

Try to imagine the world two hundred million years ago, when the earth's original landmass began to break apart into the continents that we know today. That moment made way for the mighty Atlantic ocean. 

Author, geologist and journalist Simon Winchester fell in love with the Atlantic when he made his first trans-Atlantic voyage in the early 1960s. That voyage inspired his latest book: "Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms,and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories."