A large rock had punctured the steel pipe allowing sand to fill the pipe as the tide ... the boring machine casing so that very little water or soil came into the excavation as the boring machine ...

Bits of sand ... of soil and rock, transporting the rocky debris toward the sea. Every year, rivers deposit millions of tons of sediment into the oceans. Without the erosive forces of water ...

This increased surface area allows water and nutrients to stick to the sand ... Other soil recovery techniques include using vermiculite, a phyllosilicate mineral mined from rocks and treated ...

“There’s a lot of dust and sand on Mars’ surface ... which result from rock-water interactions and look similar to soils on Earth. Until the samples are back on Earth, scientists won ...