Word: siberias
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...likely to have so general an influence upon sinners as an earthquake." The ancient Japanese believed that the hundreds of quakes that shook (and still shake) their islands every year were caused by the casual movements of a great spider that carried the earth on its back. Natives of Siberia's quake-prone Kamchatka Peninsula blamed the tremors on a giant dog named Kosei tossing snow off his fur. Pythagoras, the Greek philosopher and mathematician, believed that earthquakes were caused by the dead fighting among themselves. Another ancient Greek, Aristotle, had a more scientific explanation. He contended that...
...buildup of stresses along a fault. But the knowledge, instruments and funds necessary to monitor many miles of fault line and interpret any findings simply did not exist. Earthquake prediction did not draw much attention until 1949, when a devastating quake struck the Garm region of Siberia, causing an avalanche that buried the village of Khait and killed 12,000 people. Stunned by the disaster, the Soviets organized a scientific expedition and sent it into the quake-prone area. Its mission: to discover any geologic changes-in effect, early warning signals-that might occur before future quakes. The expedition remained...
...extra effort down on the Kochenevsky state farm, the Communist Party has created a new title, "Hero of Threshing," which will be awarded for outstanding performance. Riding atop their huge Niva combines, Soviet farmers last week were rushing to harvest the grain crop, and from the Ukraine to Siberia, extra trucks were being pressed into service to speed the wheat, corn, rye and barley to storage areas before fall rains cause spoilage. Despite the frantic efforts, the Soviet harvest is expected to fall at least 25 to 30 million tons short of this year's goal of 215 million...
...CLIMATE. Unlike the bulk of U.S. farm land, more than 60% of Soviet grain fields lie far above the 49th parallel (see map), where rainfall is sparse, the sun less powerful and the growing seasons short; frost hits large tracts in Siberia in early September. According to Soviet farm authorities, favorable weather conditions prevail about once every four years. This year there were two damaging developments. A freakishly warm winter failed to provide the essential protective coat of snow for the winter wheat, hurting the crop. Then, just as the spring plantings of corn and wheat were sprouting...
...harvesters in three Novosibirsk districts alone are laid up at present for want of parts. Krokodil, the satirical weekly, recently ran a cartoon showing a farm worker running a lottery to get a spare part for his thresher. Pravda complained that harvesters manufactured at the Krasnoyarsk plant in Siberia are so sloppily assembled that more than half have to be fixed at farm repair shops...