Word: glaciers
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...most intriguing moon is Enceladus, which seems to be caught in a kind of gravitational tug-of-war. Pulled by nearby moons, its interior heats up, causing surface fissures and creating glacier-like ice flows that obliterate craters made earlier in its turbulent history...
Larry St. Peter, 40, a Seattle insurance broker, was among those perched at the edge of Mount Rainier's Ingraham Glacier, about 3,000 ft. from the peak, discussing the climb ahead. He recalled, "Suddenly there was a crashing sound and a thunderous roar behind us. It was as if one side of the mountain were coming down on us, an 800-ft. wall with thousands of blocks of ice tumbling down. Everybody was going 'Ooooh,' as if they were watching a Fourth 2 of July display. All I could think about was running...
Martinson, St. Peter and 16 others dug their spiked ice crampons into the glacier and worked their way to the edge to avoid being swept into a crevasse. But the car-sized chunks swept eleven of their companions farther down the slope and crushed them under tons of ice. Some were buried by as much as 80 ft. of debris. A rescue party, arriving the next day, could not find any sign of the missing eleven and doubted they ever would...
Said he: "This was the biggest icefall I've seen outside the Himalayas. You can predict an avalanche, but there is no way you can predict an icefall." (That natural phenomenon is the result of internal stress that builds up within a creeping glacier, eventually causing a wall of ice to snap away.) Said Survivor Martinson of his fallen colleagues: "They didn't have a chance...
...moratorium on the acquisition of more national parkland, despite the fact that parks are now being used by more people than ever. In 1970 more than 172 million visited the country's national recreation areas; last year at least 300 million toured places like Yosemite, Yellowstone and Glacier. He has also invited private concessionaires to take over many more park functions, such as handling tenting and trailer reservations, running information booths and selling food, though the quality and cost of services now being provided by concessionaires have been the subject of three separate congressional investigations...