10A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, December 3, 1998 NATION/WORLD Breaking point New Mars data may dispel theories :.; , , " " j ., i : F i-O r' Newsday As the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft slips clos- er and closer to its assigned orbit, scientists find their plates are already overflowing with exciting data, stuff they have barely been able to taste, much less digest. Even before the big spacecraft settles into its circu- lar path around the red planet by March, the new pho- tos it is sending home are forcing researchers to rethink some older ideas. For example: Although Mars was known to be a very windy place, the new evidence suggests it's windier yet, so the ter- rain is probably more rapidly remodeled than expected. The new photos show that a complex succession of events - erosion, followed by deposition and re-ero- sion - accounts for some of the surface sculpturing. Layered terrain seen near the red planet's poles con- sists of many more layers, and far thinner, than expect- ed. This indicates that episodes of climatic change occur more often than anticipated. Instead of episodes lasting millions of years, they occur at intervals at least 10 times shorter. A few huge valleys seem to have smaller channels eroded into their floors. This is important because such features are similar to valleys seen on Earth. Thus similar processes may be involved in creating them. For the first time, evidence shows that massive flows of fluid lava solidified into huge flat plates, which then cracked into smaller chunks and floated around on still-molten lava below. The new, clearer photos of Mars' Elysium Basin show that the hardened lava stretches for hundreds of miles across the northern lowlands. What's visible now are large dark plates separated by intervening bright areas. "Some scientists thought they could somehow be volcanic, while others thought they might be related to differences in the way the wind eroded a dried lakebed,' said Alfred McEwen, a member of the sci- ence team from the University of Arizona. "With these new images," he added, "it is now quite easy to understand the older, lower-resolution Viking images" that were taken in 1976 by two earlier American missions. The scientists noted that other images show similar plate-like terrain in a nearby basin, Marte Vallis, which implies that some of the hot lava rolling over Elysium Basin spilled into the other valley and rolled on for thousands of miles to the northeast. Because very few meteorite impact craters are* visible on the lava plates, the scientists reason that the lava flows occurred late in the planet's life, after the major volcanoes such as Olympus Mons had finished erupting. "T he sparse occurrence of impact craters on these plate-like lava surfaces suggests that the eruptions hap- pened relatively recently in Mars' history," McEwenW said. "These eruptions could be much younger than the youngest of the large Martian volcanoes, but they. would still have occurred many, many millions of years ago. So these images should not be treated as evidence that Mars is volcanically active today." What is active today, according to the latest photos, are the wind-blown sand dunes, which are certainly' migrating across the Martian surface. Obvious changes in the dunes have occurred in the two decades between the Viking missions and the arrival of the new spacecraft, Global Surveyor. Because of the new data, "it's becoming clear that* Mars is a much more complex planet than seemed to be indicated by the Viking coverage," said planetary scientist Joseph Veverka, at Cornell University. ANDI MAIO/Day Engineering seniors Chris Barager and Ron Bugaj use water from a pond on North Campus yesterday to determine when the cooler will break. Latina entrepreneurs take step forward INQUIRY Continued from Page 1A committee Republicans, said the GOP Los Angeles Tnes LOS ANGELES - Maria de Lourdes Sobrino began her entrepreneurial journey alone in a cramped storefront, whipping up 300 cups of ready-to-eat gelatin by hand each day. She knew nothing about food processing, had no friends in business or banking, and faced ridicule from her well-heeled family members, who urged her to cone home to Mexico City. Sixteen years later, her Huntington Beach business and a sister company that makes frozen-fruit bars pull in $8 million a year. After designing her own produc- tion equipment and experimenting with recipes for longer shelf life, Sobrino ships her popular Mexican "gelatina" dessert and all-natural frozen confections to 14 states and three countries. She is building a 70,000- square-foot plant to handle growth. Something else has changed. Although Sobrino bat- tled her way to success alone, she now participates in a burgeoning sorority of Latina entrepreneurs. She recently helped form two local organizations to help other Latinas succeed in business. And she took her story to a nearby middle school, inspiring gawkily written thank-you notes from students who more often see themselves reflected in dropout and teen-pregnan- cy statistics. Sobrino's status as boss of Lulu's Dessert Factory, whose colorful trucks promise "More Fun for Your Spoon," left many of the schoolgirls awe-struck, but it is a success they have a better chance than ever of emu- lating. Studies show Latinas leading the nation in business formation, creating enterprises at more than four times the rate of the general population. Revenues and employment by Latina-owned businesses are growing even faster than their numbers. And while a majority fall in the service category, the number in construction, agriculture and wholesale trade has grown fastest of all - blasting a hole in gender and ethnic stereotypes. Latinas are coming together in greater numbers to network, contracting with one another and offering free services to sister start-ups. National Latina organi- zations that never before focused on business are craft- ing entrepreneurship programs, with financial backing from big corporations such as American Express. And across the country, women are stepping out from the shadows to seize leadership roles in Latino/a business organizations where they have long toiled as worker bees. was "certainly willing to notify the White House prior to its presentation next week of the issues it may wish to defend, although the president knows the truth better than anyone." A Clinton administration official, speaking only on condition of anonymity, expressed doubt that the committee would provide all the mate- rial but said the defense would go on. regardless. In fact, under Johnson's orders, the committee staffers were not permitted to copy the Freeh and LaBella memos or even take notes. The committee announced a sched- ule that includes the White House pre- sentation and summaries by theh Democratic and Republican chief' investigators, all next Tuesday and' Wednesday. The committee then will begin deliberations on articles o impeachment Thursday and continue, Friday and possibly Saturday. "Meanwhile, the committee will con- tinue with its expeditious investigation{, of other matters relevant to the inquiry, including the taking of depositions, the committee said in a statement. LaBella said in an interview yester- day that he would testify in a closed- door committee deposition Friday. But the prosecutor, who concluded that an independent counsel shouk investigate the Clinton fund raising, added that he is prohibited from dis- cussing the memo's grand jury mater- ial Do YOU WANT TO PUBLICIZE YOUR GROUP'S * 1 t~C) yvq +pA °nx ,M x" " I s ,.r r d" t~d n. S a 4 Yas(1 yr t av rk, r s S ,4 ' r r>'r sc,