Word: crust
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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About 1,300 km (800 miles) long, the San Andreas Fault system separates two sections of the earth's crust known as plates. Like giant rafts, these plates glide across an expanse of superheated rock, viscous as tar, that surrounds the planet's molten outer core. At the rate of nearly 5 cm (2 in.) a year, the Pacific plate to the west of the San Andreas is slowly pushing north, past the North American plate on the east. One possible result: 60 million or so years from now, a sliver of the California coast that includes the megalopolis...
...today more sophisticated systems can alert people as much as a minute before a city starts to shake. "This is possible," explains Massachusetts Institute of Technology geophysicist M. Nafi Toksoz, "because seismic waves propagate through the earth's crust relatively slowly, 5 to 8 km/sec. With an extensive network of sensors, we can locate the epicenter and determine the magnitude of an earthquake. This gives us the opportunity to warn people in outlying areas." How long a warning depends on the distance from the epicenter. Had such a system been in place in Mexico, for example, residents of Mexico City...
...need to use the gifts of the world's crust more thoughtfully, more efficiently. We should treasure them more, price them properly and keep more of them available for future generations," she said...
...should be happy to give 10 years of my life," said Vincent van Gogh to a friend as they were gazing at Rembrandt's Jewish Bride in Amsterdam in 1885, "if I could go on sitting here in front of this painting for a fortnight, with only a crust of dry bread for food." This (more or less) describes the fate of Rembrandt's own apprentices. The Jewish Bride (circa 1665) is Rembrandt through and through; but many Rembrandts are not, for the simple reason that (contrary to romantic legends of his poverty and his rejection by the stuffy bourgeoisie...
...Women aren't looked upon as the upper crust of the Law Review," says second-year Law student and Review editor Rebecca L. Eisenberg. "Women are not given as much credit for their intelligence and achievements...