Word: dammed
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...inadvertence has even upset the interior conditions of the earth's crust. One of the most respected U.S. geophysicists, Gordon J. F. MacDonald, reports that wherever huge dams are built, the earth starts shuddering. The enormous weight of the water in the reservoirs behind the dam puts a new stress on the subsurface strata, which are already in natural stress. In consequence, giant sections of the earth's crust sheer past one another and the earth quivers. MacDonald warns that earthquakes may result (and did near Denver) from one of the newest anti-pollution techniques: injecting liquid chemical wastes into...
...example is the mighty Aswan High Dam project, built on the Upper Nile River with Soviet aid. When an international team of ecologists studied the effects of the dam, they were shocked. For one thing, waterweeds are clogging the shoreline of Lake Nasser behind the dam. The weeds may well speed evaporation through transpiration to the point where the lake lacks enough water to drive the gigantic generators...
...dam has also stopped the flow of silt down the Nile, which in the past offset the natural erosion of the land from the Nile delta. As a result, downstream erosion may wash away as much productive farm land as is opened up by new irrigation systems around Lake Nasser. Without the nutrient-rich silt reaching the Mediterranean, the Egyptian sardine catch declined from 18,000 tons in 1965 to 500 tons in 1968. As a final penalty, irrigation projects on the delta plain have allowed a moisture-loving snail to thrive. Since it carries schistosomiasis, most of the delta...
Aquatic Paradise. The key to the Dust Bowl's transformation is the recent availability and control of water. It was always there, but it either lay inaccessible 500 feet below the surface, or turned to torrents in destructive floods. The answer to both problems was dams. Senator Mike Monroney championed the ranchers in the western part of the state who wanted small reservoirs for their dry-land irrigation. Until his death in 1963, Senator Robert S. Kerr lobbied for large flood-control dams in the river-ravaged east. As Monroney recently explained it: "We incorporated the little-dam program...
...immediate cause for concern involves the safety of men on the job. Though the North Vietnamese have generally refrained from attacking the workers, some other Communists have been less considerate. Pathet Lao troops shot up a U.S. training camp two miles from the Nam Ngum Dam site in Laos, creating apprehension among Japanese engineers and foremen. A brighter sign is that Communist forces privately promised not to bother the Laotian workmen...