The Blue Machine: How the Ocean Works

University College London oceanographer Czerski (Storm in a Teacup) takes readers on a riveting “voyage through the global ocean,” exploring its role in the planet’s ecosystem and human cultures. The ocean “acts as an energy reservoir for the whole planet,” Czerski contends, noting that the ocean’s ability to store energy from the sun as heat during warmer months and release it when the air cools keeps the planet from experiencing “huge swings in temperature” that would be difficult for living organisms to survive. The ocean’s microscopic residents can make big waves, she points out, explaining that as each hemisphere enters spring, the longer days lead to the proliferation of photosynthesizing plankton, which in turn draw larger creatures that feed on them and create mobile “rainforests” as they’re carried together by currents. The cultural history fascinates, covering how surfing’s importance to Hawaiian culture (kings and queens had “their own special surfboards”) owes much to the rarity of squalls and gales on the islands, and how the historical markers of shipwrecks posted around Reykjavik’s harbor betray Iceland’s wary relationship with the surrounding ocean, which “can be fierce.” Wide-ranging and meticulously detailed, this captures the wonder, beauty, and intrigue of its subject. (Oct.)