Geology: Probing the Earth by Projectile

To aid their endless search for water, oil and minerals beneath the surface of the earth, prospectors and scientists have used everything from divining rods to sophisticated seismic devices. But more often than not, they have had to fall back on costly and time-consuming drilling to probe the earth's secrets. Now, New Mexico's Sandia Corp. has developed new tools for preliminary subsurface exploration that may do in minutes or hours what now takes days and even months to accomplish. The new devices: high-speed, instrumented projectiles dropped from aircraft or propelled by rockets....

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