Word: terrain
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...misstep, not a rock, that toppled Dante, and only after the robot had completed its main mission: a detailed study of the crater floor 300 ft. below the rim of Alaska's active Mount Spurr volcano that included a 3-D survey of the hellish terrain and an analysis of gases issuing from belching vents. Among the significant results: the first maps of the crater's surface, normally hidden by outcroppings and haze. Dante also discovered scant sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide in the noxious air, implying that the volcano, which erupted in 1992, will probably stay quiet...
...body has eight legs, four of which are always on the ground; that provides maximum stability as the machine moves forward at a top speed of 3 ft. per minute, stepping lightly over obstacles up to 4 ft. high. Eight on- board video cameras enable scientists to view the terrain. Even more useful is a laser-ranging system -- a sort of light-based radar -- that makes 30,000 distance measurements every second and generates a virtual-reality computer image of the landscape. Says Bares: "It gives us a very complete picture of what's around...
...Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park, which is bursting at the seams from the region's population boom, rangers have closed down a ski area and dismantled three dams to restore the land for elk and sheep grazing. To protect the alpine terrain above the timberline, rangers have closed off a favorite breeding haunt of the endangered bighorn sheep near Crater Lake...
...beginning yesterday, your grand plan for an easy escape over rough or narrow terrain would be more easily foiled by the local cops...
...battered 170-year-old skull of one Phineas Gage, whose cranium had been preserved as an object of medical fascination. Gage was a reliable fellow, well regarded by his workmates on the Rutland and Burlington Railroad. But on Sept. 13, 1848, while using explosives to prepare Vermont's craggy terrain for track, he suffered a hideous accident. Briefly distracted, the 25-year-old foreman triggered a premature explosion that launched a pointed iron rod, thick as a broomstick, right through his skull. The rod rocketed through his face, excising his left eye, and exited skyward through...