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BRIDGET WILLIAMS BOOKS

The Zealandia Drowning Debate

Hamish Campbell

Did New Zealand Sink Beneath the Waves?

To drown is to die. Terrestrial life is surely extinguished by fatal immersion in water in this case seawater. At stake here is the diverse terrestrial ecosystem comprising the putative ancestors of all our native land-dwelling plants and animals. Did the entire New Zealand land mass sink beneath the waves 23 million years ago? Many biologists reject the idea and insist that our native terrestrial fauna can be explained only by the continuous existence of land. But many geologists are now asserting that there is no longer any convincing geological evidence that the New Zealand section of Zealandia remained above the seas surface. But if Zealandia did sink completely beneath the waves 23 million years ago where did our distinctive ancient ora and fauna such as the tuatara and our tree ferns come from? This BWB Text is a provocative treatment of the Drowning Zealandia scientic controversy by geologist Hamish Campbell.
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Publication: 18 November 2013 RRP$4.99 | 48 pages ISBN 9781927131961 (EPUB) 9781927131978 (Kindle) Available direct from www.bwb.co.nz and from major retailers including Amazon, Kobo and eBooks.com

Hamish Campbell is a senior scientist with GNS Science. He began his professional career as a paleontologist with the New Zealand Geological Survey in 1978. He is best known for his geological research in the Chatham Islands and for his role as geologist and science communicator at Te Papa. He is the author with Gerard Hutching of In Search of Ancient New Zealand (Penguin, 2007, 2011) and the editor with Geoff Hicks of Awesome Forces: The Natural Hazards that Threaten New Zealand (Te Papa Press, 1998, 2012).

Hamish Campbell is available for interview. Media copies of The Zealandia Drowning Debate are available. For interviews or review copies, please contact Megan Simpson: megan@bwb.co.nz 04 473 8128

Bridget Williams Books PO Box 12474 | Wellington 6144 | New Zealand +64 4 473 8128 | info@bwb.co.nz | www.bwb.co.nz

What are BWB Texts? A BWB Text is a short, digital-only piece of high-quality New Zealand writing, produced swiftly and distributed globally online. Read on smart phones and e-readers, tablets and desktop computers, BWB Texts connect an exploding online readership to some of New Zealands best authors, reading and ideas.
BWB Texts draw on the publishing expertise of Bridget Williams Books to bring readers an exciting mix of New Zealand reading: cutting edge commentary sits alongside reective narrative, debate alongside history, articles follow memoir, and information precedes stories. Launching with Paul Callaghan: Luminous Moments, the rst set of BWB Texts now includes: Maurice Gees Creeks & Kitchens: A Childhood Memoir, Rebecca Maces Report from Christchurch (in association with the New Zealand Listener), and Kathleen Joness I think ... I am going to die.: Katherine Manseld at Fontainebleau. More BWB Texts, including Tracy Barnett, The Quiet War on Asylum and Sir Tipene ORegans New Myths and Old Politics, will be released through into 2014.

How will BWB Texts work? The BWB Texts programme is inspired by emerging overseas publishing models focused on short form digital-only works, often referred to as e-singles. Sharing similar characteristics as these offshore initiatives, BWB Texts are short digital-only works, produced quickly to ensure topicality, retailed at low cost, and distributed to the widest range of devices possible. BWB Texts are crafted in-house at BWB using a digital production workow powered by Infogrid Pacic, with covers from Base Two.
The strength of BWBs commissioning strategy based on providing excellent research and writing about New Zealand is widely recognised. BWB Texts build from this expertise, using the exibility of this new approach to provide readers with a broad sweep of topics: New Zealand history; contemporary issues; biography and autobiography; other New Zealand narrative non-ction (for example, travel writing and science). BWB Texts are available directly and DRM-free from our website (www.bwb.co.nz), in addition to a wide range of retailers including Amazon, Kobo and eBooks. com. Bundled sets of BWB Texts will also be made available. School, public and tertiary libraries in New Zealand and abroad will be able to purchase copies via distributors ebrary, EBL and Wheelers.

Why are BWB Texts important? Debate new readers, new thinking BWB Texts provide a new meeting space, connecting our histories, technologies, shifting readers, emerging and established authors, and our shared futures.
Quality serious writing amidst the online noise The internet is disrupting the quality and nature of our reading. BWB Texts help connect important ideas and a readership confronted with the noise of modern media. Silence the challenges facing media BWB Texts represent a response to these challenges, one that draws on these technological shifts to nurture great writing, both as BWB Texts and within the wider BWB publishing programme. Global immediate and crossing boundaries Produced within weeks and worldwide in distribution, BWB Texts broadcast New Zealand voices and stories across boundaries.

Who is behind BWB Texts? BWB Texts was instigated by publisher Tom Rennie and journalist Max Rashbrooke, in partnership with BWBs director Bridget Williams. The trio became a quartet with Geoff Walker bringing years of New Zealand publishing experience to the team as commissioning editor alongside Max Rashbrooke. Together, we have fashioned a contemporary vision drawing on many years of strong publishing experience. Acknowledgement We would like to acknowledge the funding support of the BWB Publishing Trust (www.bwbpublishingtrust. org.nz) that makes this new digital imprint possible.