Dark Secrets of the Cryptobiotic Crust

Dark Secrets of the Cryptobiotic Crust

Think of a desert and you probably picture dry, dead dirt. If so, surprise! Much of the world’s most arid ground is alive with a tiny ecosystem, no more than a few inches thick. It’s so tiny, in fact—so thin and delicate, so apparently parched and lifeless—that this secretly living” layer of soil is called a cryptobiotic crust. So what other secrets is it keeping?

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Tearing the Nation Apart

Tearing the Nation Apart

Sorry to say it, but New Mexico is tearing the country apart.

Or, to be more precise, it’s stretching it apart. We’re talking plate tectonics, in which slabs of the Earth’s rigid lithosphere drift atop the stiff-but-fluid mantle, gradually rearranging the oceans and continents. What’s so special about the Rio Grande compared to other rivers around the nation?

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