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Attracted by the mild climate and abundance of fertile land, Italians came to the Santa Clara Valley from all regions of Italy, including Sicily, Calabria, Basilicata, Tuscany, and Piedmont. Beginning in the 1880s, the "Eden of the World" beckoned Italian immigrants as farmers, ranchers, orchardists, vegetable growers, and winemakers. Italian men, women, and children filled the numerous canneries and packinghouses supplying the rest of the nation with fresh produce. Once the largest ethnic group in the valley, Italians' impact on the region has been profound, yet is often overlooked. The photographs in this book present a special glimpse into the lives of a people whose irrepressible optimism, kindness, and can-do spirit overcame the challenges and obstacles put before them.
Deep-sea manganese nodules, once an obscure scientific curios ity, have, in the brief span of two decades, become a potential mineral resource of major importance. Nodules that cover the sea floor of the tropical North Pacific may represent a vast ore de posit of manganese, nickel, cobalt, and copper. Modern technology has apparently surmounted the incredible problem of recovering nodules in water depths of 5000 meters and the extraction of metals from the complex chemical nodule matrix is a reality. Both the recovery and the extraction appear to be economically feasible. Exploitation of this resource is, however, hindered more by the lack of an international legal structure allowing for rec...
Rocas Alijos lies 180 nautical miles west of Baja California. It comprises several exposed rocks that surmount a large oceanic volcano rising from the ocean floor well off the continental shelf. It is located at the transition zone between two major biologic provinces, at a latitude where the Pacific Current turns westward to form the north Pacific trans-oceanic current. In spite of its obvious importance for biogeographical studies, the remoteness of Rocas Alijos and its small size thwarted any major scientific work until very recently, and the topography, biota, and oceanographic conditions of the site remained largely unknown. During 1990, and again in 1993, Cordell Expeditions, a nonprofit research organization based in Walnut Creek, California, undertook expeditions to describe the site. A scientific team of 30 was onsite 31 October-7 November 1990, and a scientific team of 12 was onsite 10-15 February 1993. Since most of the Rocas Alijos site is subtidal, much of the examination and specimen collection was done by scuba, although several remote sampling techniques were also used. The exposed rocks were sampled by climbers, and megafauna were observed from shipboard.