Word: soils
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...Phoenix's case, another tale is just beginning. The ship will soon start to sample the frozen soil of the Martian pole, where a possible abundance of ice indicates a possible abundance of water and could--in theory--mean a little bit of life. If such a discovery is made, that news too will reach us 15 min. later--though odds are, no one will gripe about the wait...
...scoop, edged with pronglike "ripper tines," is designed to crunch into the tough polar permafrost. NASA's plan is to dig trenches about 19 in. (.5 m) into the surface, a depth where scientists believe ice meets soil, and haul a sample onto the spacecraft. There, an instrument will heat the soil in tiny ovens, checking the resulting vapors for water and carbon compounds. An on-board chemistry lab with dual microscopes will add water to the sample and analyze the spectral and electrochemical results to check acidity, salt levels, and ion concentrations...
...fitted with a movable scoop and what NASA calls "ripper tines," sharp teeth able to chew through a concrete-like permafrost a lot tougher than the powdery soil found at lower Martian latitudes. The scoop will be able to dig about 19 in. deep (.5 m), or about the depth at which NASA scientists believe the ice meets the soil. It will then transfer what it gouges out to the spacecraft itself, where the onboard science lab will examine it for organic materials, biochemical processes and other signs of life...
...fiftyish manager at Syncrude Canada Ltd., a company that is the Incredible Hulk of North America's biggest and richest resource deposit: Alberta's oil sands. The idea of filling the 60,000-seat home of the Toronto Blue Jays (now called Rogers Centre) with sticky, bitumen-laced soil from the Aurora North mine in a weekend is mind-boggling. But it puts the business conducted on this chunk of boreal real estate into perspective: there are 173 billion bbl. of crude contained in an area roughly the size of Florida. It just...
...material that--after being spun in what looks like the world's largest cement mixer to separate the bitumen from the sand--will eventually yield 200 bbl. of oil. "A year from now, that mountain won't be there," says Crisby, referring to the black wall of bitumen-rich soil gradually being demolished by shovel, dozer and a convoy of heavy haulers that operate around the clock...