Gail Gouskos, age 14, of Tulsa, Oklahoma, for her question:

Why aren't all the polar seas frozen solid?

In Oklahoma we expect the water outdoors to be crusted with ice when the temperature goes down to 32 degrees Fahrenheit. It seems logical to expect the polar seas to be ice¬bound through the long winter season. Salt water, however, refuses to freeze until the temperature drops several degrees lower. What°s more, tides and ocean currents disrupt the surface and tend to break up the layers of ice as they form.

Nevertheless, ice does form in the polar seas. Much of the Arctic Ocean is ice¬bound through the worst of the winter. However, this polar ice is a wilderness of treacherous ups and downs. Tides and changing, weather spells create deep cracks and gale winds pile up thick icy slabs. The shores and inlets are strewn with ice floes. In Antarctica, large areas of the vast ice cap spread out and rest on the polar sea. Their steep cliffs face pounding waves and swift currents that circle the continent. Icebergs break from the glaciers and get swept around, but not much new ice gets a chance to form in those wild, salty seas.