Word: crater
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...some time scientists have been moving toward the view that the extinction of the dinosaurs occurred after a giant comet or meteor struck the earth, filling the air with dust that shut out the sunlight for months. Now the theory is looking even better: a crater off the coast of Yucatan, known to be the right age (65 million years old) but thought to be too small to have been made by such a cosmic collision, has been discovered to be 185 miles across, not 110 as previously believed. The heavenly object that carved it out was plenty big enough...
That find might only have started a months-long forensics process. In order to identify the vehicle, investigators feared that they might have to reconstruct an entire van from pieces scattered not only on the ramp but also at the bottom of the crater. Turning over the piece of metal, though, investigator Hanlin noticed a blackened but decipherable sequence of five numbers. They were part of the vehicle identification number stamped on various parts of vehicles to help police trace one that is stolen or wrecked in an accident. Experienced agents know that the identification numbers are actually codes that...
...bombers along with their bomb. The blast seems to have occurred either on the ramp or at the bottom of it -- not ordinarily a spot where bombers would park, get out of the van and take an elevator up to the street. A foul odor in the crater could point to the presence of bodies in the wreckage, but it could have other causes as well...
Even after investigators get down into the crater to check out "the real hot stuff" and run down all the leads stemming from Salameh, Fox warns, it ! may be years before the probers can piece together a full picture of the bombing conspiracy. But then, investigators were saying much the same thing about the possibility of developing leads at all even as they were closing in on Salameh. Perhaps they will get lucky again...
CALL IT FORENSIC FORTUITY. DAYS BEFORE THEY even hoped to reach the bottom of the crater dug out by a terrorist bomb at New York City's World Trade Center, law-enforcement technicians happened on a twisted shard from a van frame. It contained a traceable part of a vehicle ID number, leading to a van-lease paper trail in New Jersey and to a suspect. Four days later, FBI agents arrested Mohammed A. Salameh, 25, a Jordanian national of Palestinian descent residing illegally in the U.S., and charged him with taking part in the bombing. Five people died...