Word: earths
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...reasons for choosing 1957-58 as as Geophysical Year was the anticipation of great solar activity--sunspots, flares and "plages" many times the size of the earth--which occurs in roughly eleven year cycles. As long ago as 1946, scientists were looking forward to last year as another peak in the sun-spot cycle; they were amply rewarded, for both 1946-47 and 1957-58 turned in high sunspot peaks. Donald H. Menzel, Director of the Harvard College Observatory, and long a specialist in solar research, agreed that the Sun cooperated beautifully during its intensive examination. In fact...
...declaration of a special World Interval, an alert to scientists to keep an especially sharp watch for unusual occurances. It was unfortunate that he did not consider the evidence strong enough for such a step, because the next day one of the greatest of all magnetic storms struck the Earth...
...covering over three billion square miles of the Sun's surface. Before the giant flare was seen, seven smaller flares had been observed, like rumblings before a storm. When a flare breaks out it spews a large number of electrically charged particles out into space; the bombardment of the Earth's atmosphere by these particles is thought to be the cause of aurorae, magnetic disturbances, freakish radio reception or blackout, and even the generation of unusual electrical currents in telephone wires and power lines...
...average person was scarcely aware that any kind of storm had struck the earth. A Minnesota family probably was unaware that the same phenomenon that produced the spectacular northern lights the evening of the tenth also permitted them to pick up BBC telecasts from London. A ham radio operator in Rhode Island with a normal range of fifty miles was startled to pick up a station from Texas, but a Trans World Airlines pilot had to fly thousands of miles over the North Pole without radio contact anywhere. As soon as the Sun set on the evening of the tenth...
This week a committee appointed by the National Academy of Sciences and headed by Geochemist Harrison Brown of Caltech sketched out a ten-year program for unlocking the ocean treasure house, which may contain as much of value to man as the earth's land. As the planet becomes more thickly populated, whole nations may get the bulk of their food from the fertile sea, as well as minerals and fuel in vast abundance. A quick and valuable byproduct of oceanography will be improved knowledge of the conditions governing submarine warfare. The committee did not mention, but was well...