Kenny Leonard, age 8, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, for his question:

How does an island stay afloat?

When you look at an island across the ocean, it certainly seems to be floating on the water. An island in a lake or river also seems to be floating. However, sometimes our eyes can fool us and what we seem to see:.is not really so. This happens when we think we see a floating island. Actually it is not floating.

We are told that an island is a piece of land surrounded by water. But this does not tell us what is below. The truth is that the watery seas, lakes and streams all have solid floors made of mud and rocks. Often their floors are bumpy. Sometimes a bump is high enough to poke up above the water. Then we call it an island. We might say that an island is a hump of dirt that is tall enough to stand on the bottom with its head above the water. Naturally, this great chunk of dirt and rocks could not possibly float, even if it tried.