Word: silts
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When Egypt's President Gamal Abdel Nasser grabbed the Suez Canal 6½ years ago, his bitter enemies in Europe predicted that the big ditch would soon be filled with silt and that untrained Egyptian pilots would never be able to steer shipping through safely...
...Anchored off the wild, desert coast of South West Africa last week, an ungainly craft went about its unlikely work-sucking diamonds, along with tons of silt and rock, from the sea bottom. Barge 77, the world's only floating diamond mine, is the brainchild of Texan Sammy Collins, 48, a stocky, onetime oilfield roustabout who amassed a fortune in the exacting business of laying underwater pipeline. Intrigued by diamonds during an African engineering job, Collins went underseas prospecting in 1961 despite geologists' warnings that he was wasting his time and money, risked $6,000,000 to back...
...rises as a cold, clear mountain torrent in Colorado. It dwindles and almost dies while crossing the Kansas plains. Fed by tributaries, it meanders in great twists and turns through Oklahoma and Arkansas. It is one of America's muddiest rivers. Because of its sewage, silt and salt, the water is not fit for swimming, drinking or irrigation. In fact, the 1,450-mile Arkansas River is good only for the huge channel catfish, which have literally pulled fishermen into its muck...
Cheaper by Water. To shore up the sandy, crumbling banks of the Arkansas, the project will spend $118.5 million alone on dikes and retaining walls. To control the silt, two large dams will be built on major tributaries to the Arkansas: the Eufaula on the Canadian River and the Oologah on the Verdigris. Finally, to make the shallow, shifting Arkansas navigable, engineers will build a series of 18 locks and dams along the 516-mile route, including the $90 million Dardanelle lock...
...find Sybaris, the rich Greek colony in southern Italy that gave its name to the word sybaritic. After losing a war with the nearby city of Croton. Sybaris was leveled to the ground, and the Crotonians made the river Crathis flow over the ruins and cover the site with silt. Archaeologists hope that some of the city's interesting features were sealed in protective mud, but they have never known just where to look for them...