FROM RAINDROPS TO VOLCANOES

It's a truism in science that the simplest questions are the hardest to answer. What makes it rain? Why do waves foam and bubble? Considering the recent five-year drought in the Northeast, it would seem high time that weathermen sought a few answers. Blanchard, an ex-Navy man, now a research scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, presents an enthusiastic account of what is and isn't known about sea surface meteorology. He explains why raindrops are not tear-shaped but more like hamburger buns; how water splashing on water creates tiny jet fountains, and how salt particles get to ride high in the air. He then relates these minute surface studies to the eruption of Surtsey--the volcanic island recently formed off the coast of Iceland (of which he gives a vivid eye-witness account). Like many books in the Science Study Series this one is clearly aimed at young readers with do-it-yourself experimental glints in their eyes. The lazy adult will not mind this, however, or the didactic I-want-to-tell-you style, because what Blanchard does want to tell belongs to the little-known-but-fascinating realm.