Word: karst
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...major speech, engaging in wonky chatfests with "ordinary" Chinese citizens, and he seemed to enjoy those too. Much of the time, though, Clinton and his family were touring, gazing at the fabulous terra-cotta army of Xian, the Great Wall, the neon-lit Shanghai Bund at night, the ethereal karst mountains of Guilin and the towering tangle of Hong Kong's skyscrapers. It was a lot more fun than hanging around Washington not answering questions about Monica Lewinsky. As White House spokesman Michael McCurry put it, referring to last week's grand jury headliner, Linda Tripp: "The President has been...
...underground. In most parts of the U.S., the ground is solid and compact and water flows down through it at a rate of less than 30 m (100 ft.) a year. But about 20% of the U.S.'s fresh water flows through the myriad cavities and pores of limestone karst, often traveling 1 km (0.6 mile) overnight, taking unpredictable turns and sometimes bubbling up to the surface through a spring. Containment of a toxic spill in such terrain is virtually impossible. Even ordinary garbage that is dumped in a sinkhole can contaminate groundwater miles away...
...potential for disaster is only beginning to be appreciated. For years residents and businesses around Bowling Green, Kentucky, pumped or buried solvents and wastes in the ground, heedless of the fact that the city of 40,000 sits on karst. In effect, they turned the underlying caves into a toxic sewer. Twice during the 1980s, benzene and other chemicals rose up from the caves into homes and elementary schools, endangering people's lives...
...their knowledge of how water flows through caves to trace the source of the fumes and put a stop to the contamination. They plan to map out more of the underground caves and passageways in order to better understand which areas are at highest risk. Communities built on karst in Tennessee, West Virginia, Florida and Missouri may someday follow suit...
These efforts at prevention will not eliminate accidents, however. "One of the biggest fears I have now is highway and railroad spills," says Nicholas Crawford, director of the Center for Cave and Karst Studies at Western Kentucky. Two years ago, a freight train carrying hazardous chloroform jumped the tracks near Lewisburg, Tennessee. "If that train had derailed in Bowling Green, it would have been a catastrophe," Crawford says...