GREAT WATERS: An Atlantic Passage

Plumbing the depth of one of the world's two great oceans on a scientific voyage from Woods Hole, Mass., to Barbados, Cramer moves from the subatomic structure of water molecules and the organic chemistry of microbiology to the remnants of immense geological epochs, highlighting the critical interdependence of all life on earth with the sea. In addition to illuminating the connection between ocean currents and continental climate, Cramer capably explains the sometimes perplexing effect of the ocean on geology, including the Atlantic Ocean's tidal influence on atmospheric dehydration and hence, Saharan Africa's continual desiccation. We also learn about some of the lesser-known aquatic creatures that dwell at the surface of the sea as well as in its abysmal depths. Cramer is at her best combining the esoteric data of hydrology with her personal musings on the mysteries of life, achieving originality and poetic grace in her reflections on the oceans and heavens during shipboard night watches. However, she too frequently lapses into pop-culture clichés regarding human depredation on the planet, and is weakest when she descends to overwrought New Age platitudes on Western culture's disdain for nature. Fortunately, her oceanic subject is vast enough to weather these petty shoals of ecology banalities. Illus., maps. (Aug.)