Lakes

Their Birth, Life, and Death

By: John Richard Saylor

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Hardcover | 7 January 2022 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Hardcover
240 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
16.2 x 23.8 x 2.8

Hardcover

$59.99

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A fascinating exploration into the natural history of lakes: what they are, how they behave, and how they function within the biosphere.

In Lakes: Their Birth, Life, and Death, John Richard Saylor shows us just how deep our connection to these still waters run in a revealing look at lifegiving bodies of water. Think all lakes are the same? Think again. Saylor leads an illuminating tour of the most fascinating lakes around the world. Whether it's Lake Vostok, located more than two miles beneath the surface of Antarctica, whose water was last exposed to the atmosphere perhaps a million years ago; Lake Baikal in southern Siberia, the world's deepest and oldest lake formed by a rift in the earth's crust; or Lake Nyos, the so-called Killer Lake that exploded in 1986, resulting in hundreds of deaths. Along the way we learn all the many forms that lakes take - how they come to be and how they feed and support ecosystems - and what we stand to lose when lakes vanish.

About the Author

John Richard Saylor, PhD, is a professor of mechanical engineering at Clemson University. He has spent the better part of his career studying fluid mechanics, specifically researching phenomena that occur at the interface between air and water. In addition to lakes, his scientific interests include the physics of drops, bubbles, and waves, and he has applied his research to applications such as the use of water sprays and ultrasonics to clean diesel exhaust and methods for using radar to study raindrops. He was a student at the Santa Fe Science Writing Workshop in 2017.

He lives in Clemson, South Carolina.

6 illustrations

Industry Reviews

"Saylor delivers science in a layperson's language to detail their forms, how they're created, how they're miraculously sustained, and, yes, how they die. Revelations abound."--Booklist

"Lakes is my favorite kind of natural history: meticulously researched, timely, comprehensive, and written with imagination and verve."--Jerry Dennis, author of The Living Great Lakes

"Lakes is a timely celebration of the world's myriad freshwater repositories, reminding us of their comforting permanence and frightening fragility. Lakes informs us about where they come from, intrigues us about what they do when they're here, and warns us about what happens when they die. Read this book and you'll never take a glass of water for granted again."--Wayne Grady, author of The Great Lakes: The Natural History of a Changing Region

"A far-reaching introduction to the realm of fresh water, including many of the world's most fascinating lakes; how they form, how they work, and how they change over time."--Curt Stager, author of Still Waters: The Secret World of Lakes

"An expert of both engineering and storytelling, John Richard Saylor explores the many unsolved mysteries about the world's lakes. We learn that lakes are not permanent fixtures of the landscape but are in a state of perpetual invisible change. I'll never look at lakes the same way again." --David L. Hu, author of How to Walk on Water and Climb up Walls

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