Word: earths
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Once again the turmoil in Iran emphasizes American dependence upon what Jimmy Carter calls the "thin line of oil tankers stretching halfway around the earth to one of the most unstable regions in the world." The drive to gain some freedom from OPEC by developing domestic energy sources has never been more pressing. Last week the Senate easily adopted by a vote of 65 to 19 a $20 billion synthetic-fuel program that, among other things, would turn the nation's vast coal deposits into oil and gas. But of all the old and new sources of petroleum...
...trio of quakes has another distinction. Most major quakes occur around the boundaries of the great moving plates that form the earth's outer layers. One such region lies along California's quake-prone San Andreas fault, where the North American plate and the adjacent Pacific plate are grinding horizontally against each other as they move in opposite directions. When friction causes these plates to stick, stresses build up that are eventually released in a quake when the rock suddenly fractures and the plates lurch ahead. Yet the New Madrid area lies in the very heart...
...fault zone apparently also lies within an even larger geological structure discovered previously during magnetic and gravitational surveys: a great underground rift in the earth's crust marked by the subsidence of rock over an area at least 190 km (120 miles) long and 50 km (30 miles) wide. Scientists believe this rift was created several hundred million years ago, when the North American plate began to split and molten rock from the interior welled toward the surface. Though the breakup halted-for reasons as inexplicable as the original movement-a weak area remains in the form...
...discovery of these faults is of far-reaching significance. For the first time, scientists are linking earthquakes in the New Madrid region to specific features in the earth's crust. That means they should be able to measure these movements and perhaps ultimately even forecast future large quakes. Is another monster New Madrid quake likely? Seismologist Otto Nuttli of St. Louis University has no doubts. Says he: "Pressure is building up all along the fault. That's why we're having small earthquakes. The little ones are symptomatic of the stress. They are not relieving it. Everything...
...meek shall inherit the earth, what the hell is gonna happen to all us tigers," reads the caption under the picture of a puzzled feline that Pappy Hunt, women's cross country coach, presented to sophomore Martha Clabby at last night's end-of-season banquet...