Word: ashe
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Young Leakey's self-confidence was justified; the Turkana region has proved to be an anthropological mother lode. In a basin several kilometers deep, walls of strata lie exposed, many-layered sandwiches of volcanic ash and ancient sediments containing the remains of complete prehistoric environments. Organizing a team of fossil hunters, Leakey established a base camp at Koobi Fora, a mound at the inboard end of a long, crocodile-infested sand spit that curves out into the lake. Then he began following his nose?with remarkable success. Turkana has yielded the richest accumulation of remnants of man and his predecessors...
Fossilization takes place only under special conditions. An animal or plant that dies and is soon after buried in mud or covered by volcanic ash stands a decent chance of being preserved; one that perishes in a jungle or rain forest will probably break down into its chemical components and simply disappear. Few fossils that are formed survive; most are destroyed by the continuing erosion of wind and water. Fewer still are discovered. Though hominid fossils may exist elsewhere, they are found most abundantly-and frequently-in eastern Africa. There, geological processes have exposed layer upon layer of sediments that...
...fresh season of volcanic activity has begun. On Japan's northern island of Hokkaido last week, thousands of acres around Mount Usu lay under a cover of gray ash, and Usu continued to steam and rumble ominously. Italy's Mount Etna has erupted for the third time in a month, sending a stream of lava three kilometers (two miles) down the mountainside and shooting a pillar of flame and smoke 450 meters (1,500 ft.) into the air. Both provided evidence that, regardless of progress in other areas, man is still powerless to control the fires beneath...
...pressures and triggering repeated earth tremors that rocked Hokkaido. Finally, on Aug. 7, the 725-meter (2,400-ft.) Usu awakened with a roar like that of a bomb. A huge black cloud soared to a height of 12,000 meters (39,000 ft.). A dense shower of gray ash and chunks of porous, rock-like pumice poured out of the cloud...
...cockpit windows had been cracked by volcanic shrapnel. Though no casualties were reported on the ground, everything within a two-mile radius of Usu was covered with more than a foot of debris, and even Asahikawa, a city 100 miles away, was dusted with a fine coating of ash. Rice, maize and potato crops in the area were destroyed. Tourist hotels shut down as residents of the island began digging out. Before Usu rests again, it could throw out much more debris. Japanese volcanologists report that columns of smoke mixed with steam and smelling heavily of sulfur are still rising...