Word: basins
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...future could be even brighter. Only 30% of Brazil's proven oil reserves are developed, and Petrobras has first call on much of the rest. The volume of those reserves is expected to grow substantially as the company explores the vast Amazon Basin and oil pools off the Atlantic coast. Petrobras has become a leader in drilling deepwater, offshore wells in the so-called Campos Basin off the coast of Rio de Janeiro. Now the company is looking into joint ventures with 56 potential foreign partners, including Exxon, Shell and British Gas, which would allow expanded exploration around the country...
Though Sojourner won't get anywhere fast, where it does go should hold a lot of secrets. Ares Vallis was chosen as the landing site in the first place because the now dusty basin was once the largest known floodplain in the solar system. Water rushed into the valley at up to 170 m.p.h., carrying a giant spelunker's bag of rocks with it. Without venturing very far from where the lander set down, the rover could thus use its cameras and X-ray spectrometer to sample geology from all over the planet. Sojourner is scheduled to conduct these studies...
Nevada's Great Basin is a paranoid Holy Land, and no place is better suited for the job. Topography is destiny out here. It is the only region in North America where falling water has no outlet to the ocean (it lies trapped, then evaporates back into the atmosphere). The thin, spreading crust of the valley floors is notoriously unstable, agitated. Hot springs steam up through faults and fissures. Whirling dust devils dance across the flats. The mountain ranges are new, still rising, alive; perched on top of this tectonic tumult, the structures of civilization seem to teeter. The schools...
Sociology repeats geography. The Great Basin does not just trap precipitation; it is also a sinkhole for curious ideas. In the Salt Wells brothel outside Fallon, a group of buzz-cut Navy buddies are swigging tequila around a blazing fireplace. They narrate the day's maneuvers with swooping hand gestures while a giggling, shirtless young prostitute looks on. She seems unimpressed by the flyboys' classified briefing. At the bar, a middle-aged cowboy quietly raves about a plot to swamp Nevada in methamphetamine ("crank"). The cowboy doesn't want his name used (few people do out here), but he does...
...about indications of past life on the Red Planet. But the agency is releasing a stream of striking panoramic shots taken by the rover and Pathfinder that provide convincing evidence that the planet was inundated by ancient floods, some the size of the massive deluge that filled the Mediterranean basin. Today's Martian forecast: dry, with a temperature at dawn of minus 76 degrees Fahrenheit...