Word: watered
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...fertile parts of the sea, the surface water is kept supplied with nutrients by some sort of upwelling that brings rich bottom water to the surface. In far northern and far southern parts of the ocean,-the surface water gets so cold and heavy in winter that it sinks and is replaced by bottom water that contains plant nutrients. Currents carry these nutrients to other seas, e.g., the Labrador Current off the Newfoundland banks, the Peru Current off the coast of South America, and produce rich fishing grounds...
Unless they are fertilized by currents from colder areas, tropical seas are largely sterile. Since the richest harvests of the sea derive from bottom water rising to the surface, oceanographers have long had the notion of creating artificial upwelling in sterile parts of the ocean. One possibility is a nuclear reactor sitting on the bottom and slightly warming the water around it. The warmed water will rise, carrying nutrients to the surface and turning clear water, admired only by tourists, into rich, turbid pastures. Another way would be to pump deep water into some closed area, such as a Pacific...
...ocean. One under study is a disk several hundred feet in diameter, with floats around the edge and ballast in the center. When it reaches a predetermined depth, the ballast will be detached, and the floats will pull the net upward. As it rises, it will inflate with water just as a parachute inflates with air, scooping up any giant squid and sea serpents...
...grim in Jidda during the ten days of the hadj, as heat-sick pilgrims squatted in the streets gathering strength for the 46-mile trek to Mecca. But newly rich Saudi Arabia has recently built a "Pilgrim City"-a roofed compound, equipped with food shops, electricity, running water and toilets. Here pilgrims wait out a three-day quarantine before inspection by doctors...
...pilgrimage-the 15-mile walk to the valley of Arafat, where all hadjis must be present at the same time to listen to prayers recited on Mount Arafat. The temperature that day was well over 100°, and the old and weak were dropping everywhere. Tubs of water were available for dunking heat-exhaustion victims. "Even if they don't recover," said one veteran, "they are perfectly happy, because they have died on a hadj.'' The death rate for this year's pilgrimage was more than a thousand. Many were buried within twelve hours in unmarked...