Word: basalt
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Greenland is beautiful but barren. Fifty times as big as Denmark, which has ruled it since 1721, it is 85% covered by an icecap up to two miles thick. The rest is rocky terrain virtually devoid of vegetation. On the shores, steep granite and basalt cliffs plunge into ice-choked fjords. Polar bears prowl the far north, reindeer roam the western coastal mountains, and a few hardy sheep are herded in the far south...
...first two were spent fishing), the outdoors-loving Governor paddled down the Yakima River. The party of 27, including Ray's gray poodle Jacques, required four large rafts and enjoyed a luncheon of barbecued beef, avocados stuffed with shrimp, and champagne. "It was really pleasant, floating past basalt cliffs covered with lichen and watching the swallows," says Ray, 63. But near the end, the Governor got the old competitive urge and suggested a race. "We put our minds and paddles to work," says Ray. "And we beat the others to the finish line...
...bridge in question overlooks the mile-wide Victoria Falls, whose plunge off a black basalt cliff into the Zambezi River creates a column of spray more than 1,000 ft. high that gives rise to the African name for the cascade: Mosi-oa-tunya (the smoke that thunders). A white line halfway across the 657-ft.-long bridge marks the border between Rhodesia and Zambia. Directly over that line, the Rhodesian government of Prime Minister Ian Smith and the black leaders of the country's African National Council will meet next week. Their purpose: to begin negotiations that will...
...sediment before beginning to bite into the solid rock that they were looking for. Analysis of the core samples brought to the surface identified it as granite about 600 million years old. The find proved that the rock was continental shelf and not ocean basin crust, which is primarily basalt (solidified lava), which in the South Atlantic is no more than about 130 million years...
...history of the moon is revealed by the different types of rock found there. Most of the rocks brought back from the lunar seas by Apollo 11 and 12 are titanium-rich basalt and gabbro. They appear to be once-molten lava from inside the moon which broke through the crust made of lighter anorthosite and crystallized to form the seas about 3.5 billion years...