Word: moltenly
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...molten hail produced by Santorini's deafening eruption must have rendered all lands within a 100-mile radius (including central Crete) uninhabitable. Then came the incursion of the sea into the immense lava boil that had been Santorini-probably causing water to recede temporarily from shores around the Mediterranean. As the immense volume of water that had converged on Santorini rushed outward again in a giant wave, it smashed harbors and flooded large districts around the Mediterranean basin. The great sea empire of Minoan Crete simply vanished in the wake of Santorini's destruction...
Letting their imaginations roam, the authors provide a vivid description of what might follow the catastrophic impact. As the comet's head, or nucleus, struck the earth's surface, tons of molten rock would be hurled thousands of miles, falling and hardening in tektite-like patterns far from the point of collision. At the same time, another spectacular event may well have occurred. The gases contained in the comet nucleus-particularly frozen ammonia and methane-would have spread through the atmosphere and the water, drastically changing the environment for primitive life. Then, in a swirling finale...
Elusive Fragment. Suddenly, Scott exclaimed: "Guess what we just found!" His prize was a rock made up of large crystals; to scientists his description indicated that it had once been molten and had cooled slowly, probably far below the surface. "The Holy Grail," proclaimed NASA Geochemist Robin Brett, who, like Scott, immediately concluded that the specimen could well be an elusive fragment of the moon's original crust. The crystalline rock, the first large one of its kind found by astronauts, may well give scientists a new slant on the early history of the 4.6 billion-year-old moon...
...another unexpected finding was the strength of the moon's magnetic field; pre-Apollo scientists were sure that there was no significant lunar magnetic field. But there is, though its strength is puny compared with earth's. Does that mean that the moon once had a molten iron core? Perhaps. Urey offers an alternate explanation. He maintains that the moon picked up its magnetism early in its history while it was closer to earth. And the arguments...
...Located at the southeastern edge of the Sea of Rains, the perilous highland landing site is farther north of the lunar equator than any area yet trod by man. It offers a scientifically tantalizing sampling of four major types of lunar features: a mare (or lunar sea of once molten lava), an alpine range called the Apennines, a deep, snaking rille or gorge and a variety of puzzling smaller mounds and craters. Scientists hope to recover fragments of the moon's original crust. The landscape could supply scientists with new clues to the origin of the moon...