Word: topsoil
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...time the sound of the Martian wind. More important, the ship will be equipped with a robotic arm and scoop, much like the arms carried aboard the Viking landers in the 1970s. Unlike the Vikings, though, which were able to paw just a few feeble inches into the Martian topsoil, the new ship will gouge out a trench nearly 3 ft. deep...
After bombarding the reddish dirt with helium nuclei and analyzing the resulting patterns of radiation, the spectrometer revealed that the soil was rich in iron and virtually identical to that examined at other sites 21 years earlier by the Viking landers. This suggested to scientists that Martian topsoil is widely distributed by the planet's frequent global dust storms. Why the reddish hue? "The surface of Mars is rusting," explains Jim Bell, a Cornell University scientist...
Perhaps because they sit atop some of America's most fertile land-the topsoil, the remains of a prehistoric lake bed, can run 6 ft. deep -- many Cass County farmers say they are ready for change. Most find the welter of farm programs confining and confusing; many would prefer to shuck them altogether. Indeed, some farmers have begun to get out of the farm program voluntarily. Gerald Melvin, a third-generation farmer who works 3,000 acres that produce durum wheat, beans and five other crops, suggests that farmers would gladly accept reduced payments if Washington stopped placing burdensome environmental...
Gorbachev knows firsthand what mankind can do to the environment. "I first saw the dangers in Stavropol, where poor farming practices produced sandstorms that carried away topsoil," he said during an interview with TIME. While in the Kremlin, he confronted one horror story after another of skies blackened by smokestacks, rivers ruined by toxic wastes and fields flooded by ill- conceived dams. "Farmers rebelled against these outrages," he said, "but because of the command system, their revolt was not heard." Then came the explosion of the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl, which "was the final argument. All of us then...
...newcomer to the San Joaquin Valley, Crown was stunned to learn that the same rich topsoil that makes the region an agricultural Mecca also harbors this deadly microbe. She has become a statistic in the worst epidemic of valley fever ever recorded. From 1986 to 1990, doctors reported an average of 450 cases a year to state authorities. In 1991 the number nearly tripled, to 1,208. Last year it soared to 4,54l, with an estimated death toll exceeding...