BARBARA RANSOM is an internationally known geoscientist with a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley and who now works at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in the Geosciences Research Division. She also works for the California Space Institute. In addition to her scientific pursuits, Dr. Ransom is an author of books for the general public on Earth Science, an associate editor of the international journal "Marine Geology", and acts as a science consultant on books about the earth and its oceans.