Word: lavas
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...Last week NASA's Magellan spacecraft transmitted the most detailed pictures ever made of Earth's next-door neighbor. The radar images revealed a tortured topography with fault-like cracks in surprisingly regular patterns, craters as big as greater Los Angeles and volcanic mountains flanked by congealed rivers of lava at least 320 km (200 miles) long. Says James Head III, a Brown University geologist and member of the Magellan imaging team: "It's a revolutionary new view of Venus...
...knew we could go no farther. Flames 70 feet high were cresting over the curve of the hill on one side, and on the other, currents of orange were slicing up the slope toward us. Everywhere I turned, rivulets of orange were pouring across the hills like molten lava, sweeping up trees and feasting on houses. At times we were unable to breathe as the 70 m.p.h. wind whipped ashes all around, so strong we could not open the door. Our van was alone in the heart of the inferno, and there was nothing we could do but pray...
...bore a disconcerting resemblance to an asphalt driveway on the move and gone berserk. As an immense flow of 2000 degrees F lava from Kilauea volcano oozed across Hawaii's Big Island, one dwelling after another smoldered, then burst into flames. Roads were buried, palm trees and utility poles snapped and fell. At least 53 homes in the sleepy village of Kalapana have been destroyed since April, and all 300 residents had been evacuated by the weekend...
Some volunteers remained behind to move the historic Star of the Sea Roman Catholic church -- a structure noted for its interior wall paintings -- out of the path of destruction. By the time the lava flow sputters off into the ocean, Kalapana will be no more. Says Harry Kim, Hawaii County's civil-defense chief: "This community is finished. This land won't be productive for 150 years...
Encircling the Big Island is a two-lane highway, which gives tourists a rare glimpse of nature in action. On one side is lava, extending back up to the countryside, and on the other side is more lava, stretching out to the Pacific...