Hans Silvester's dramatic photographs of water in its various forms combine with a lyrical text on water's infinitely mysterious nature to produce a glowing tribute to this life-giving substance, which occupies about 70 percent of the earth's surface.

Silvester's spectacular photography of still and turbulent bodies of water, of geysers and glaciers, of clouds ready to burst and snow about to melt, are among the most sublime images of water ever gathered in one volume. Authors Bernard Fischesser and Marie-France Dupuis-Tate discuss the scientific properties and sources of water; reflect on water as a sculptor of the landscape; deliver a powerful environmental message about the dangers of polluting the Earth's water supply; and offer a rhapsodic appreciation for this elusive, omnipresent, ever-changing, and indispensable material that forms and animates every terrestrial being.