Gravity Currents: In the Environment and the Laboratory, Ellis Horwood Series in Environmental Sciences

Abstract

There are books and courses on experimental physics, thorough and rigorous, which contain only simple formulae and use only elementary algebra. The subject is explained in lucid and precise language, with the help of many sketches, photos, and diagrams. The book under review belongs to this genre and is in fact one of its most successful members.About half of the book is devoted to the description of a variety of natural phenomena in which gravity currents play an important role. The class of gravity currents is taken to be quite broad, to include almost any kind of quasi‐horizontal motion caused by density differences. The range of natural phenomena surveyed is correspondingly great, from tidal bores through thunderstorms to the eruption of Mount St. Helens. The atmospheric examples are especially thorough and interesting. The broad panorama certainly brings home to the reader the many ways in which fluids (including fluidized rock) can move under the influence of gravity. However, not all of the examples show typical gravity behavior, nor are they all treated with equal thoroughness. The Gulf Stream is mentioned, and the variability of its position is shown in an illustration, but this is not connected with anything typical of gravity currents, nor is the important interplay between Earth rotation and such large‐scale “gravity currents” (if one insists on calling them that) at all adequately explained.