pushing geophysics to the boundaries

A zeppelin. (Google)

?JWANENG MINE, Botswana (Reuters) ? Moonlight glistens off a huge zeppelin airship as it glides over Botswana?s Kalahari desert. High-tech sensors on board probe the arid sands below, looking for buried diamonds.

This is De Beers? latest tool in its search for gems in Botswana, the world?s leading diamond producer by value.

The rigid dirigible with a disaster-scarred history carries classified U.S. technology, first developed for the military and still so sensitive that a photographer was warned not to film the equipment, provided and operated by U.S. firm Bell Geospace.

?This is the cutting edge. We?re pushing geophysics to the boundaries,? said Brad Pitts, who heads De Beers? airship exploration programme, launched last November.

?This is the only airship in the world being used for geophysical surveying.?. . .

Zeppelins enjoyed a golden age in the 1930s when they carried passengers on hundreds of trans-Atlantic flights.

But they fell into disrepute after the spectacular 1937 Hindenburg disaster, when an airship burst into flames in Lakehurst, New Jersey, killing 35 people on board. . . .

?This (De Beers airship) might mean zeppelins could be used for other commercial applications,? said pilot Fritz Guenther as he steered the ship above Jwaneng, waving at curious people below.?

?Eric Onstad, for Reuters News, Zeppelin seeks diamond stashes in Kalahari, here it is: http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=834132006; posted just today, 6/6/0 . . . O . . . Oh shit!!!!!!!!!!