Word: soils
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...grudgingly, life faltered and changed in many regions of the U.S. The Labor Department estimated that some 500,000 workers had been laid off in plants shut down by fuel shortages. Next summer's crops could be damaged by the effects of the deep-reaching cold on the soil, and the lack of moisture-bearing snow in the West...
...cold soak" also plagued the Midwest's farmers. Near Mount Vernon, Iowa, Gordon Neal discovered that the frost had penetrated an astonishing 6 ft. into the soil, freezing his water line for the first time since it was installed at the turn of the century. His silage pile was unusable, frozen rock-solid; he was forced to feed his cattle scarce hay. Following an extended drought, the freeze endangered the winter wheat crop throughout the Midwest...
...South Dakota, where two-thirds of the state's stock ponds were dry, there was not enough moisture to freeze the soil and, incredibly, it began to blow away in scenes chillingly reminiscent of the Dust Bowl of the '30s. Soil erosion in the coming windy months is also a threat throughout the farm belt. Grain farmers want more snow, not less, to blanket and insulate the ground -and provide moisture in the spring. Livestock herds are being sold off as feed costs rise. Things are so bad that Roald Lund, a North Dakota agriculture expert, suggested that...
These tests will allow Martian soil samples to incubate longer in order to give any microbes present a better chance to grow. The experiments will be run at temperatures closer to the frigid levels that prevail on Mars. Also, in a search for life that may have burrowed deeper into the Martian soil to escape ultraviolet radiation bombarding the surface, one of the landers will try to dig 30.5 centimeters (1 foot) deep for a soil sample. Explains Klein: "We want to play out our whole set of cards before we make our best judgment on the question of life...
Upholding Einstein. In other new experiments not concerned with biology, one of the landers will pick up and analyze a pebble (only soil has been examined to date) to get a better idea of the planet's geology. Scientists will also continue monitoring Viking 2's seismograph (the one aboard Viking 1 is disabled), which earlier picked up what may have been the only Marsquake to have occurred so far during the mission. They also plan to maneuver one of the Viking orbiters to within 50 kilometers (31 miles) of Phobos in order to get high-resolution pictures...