Word: subsoil
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Mars, as scientists now know, was once a very wet planet, running with rivers and teeming with oceans and seas much like the Earth. But its low gravity and thin atmosphere allowed most of that water to vanish into space. What was left retreated into the subsoil or, significantly, contracted into the poles. Phoenix, a stationary lander in the style of the old Viking ships that touched down on the planet in 1976, will get a chance to dig into that frozen polar rind...
...offered to two Chinese firms, but the other consortium members chose to exercise their contractual right to divvy up BG's share, worth an estimated $1.2 billion. Then, in June, Nazarbayev declared the state had the right to buy BG's stake. The government's argument: it owns the subsoil rights to Kashagan and so has a pre-emptive option to buy. "When the government wants to buy a stake at market prices, it doesn't hurt or damage the other contractors," says Uzakbai Karabalin, head of KazMunaiGaz. "All the government wants is to exercise its right to buy into...
...that climatic changes are already reworking the far-north landscape. In the past two decades, average annual temperatures have climbed as much as 7[degrees]F in Alaska, Siberia and parts of Canada. Sea ice is 40% thinner and covers 6% less area than in 1980. Permafrost--permanently frozen subsoil--is proving less permanent. And even polar tourists are returning with less than chilling tales, one of which was heard around the world last week...