Huge Holes in the Earth: Open-Pit Mines Seen From Space

[The Straight Story]

Huge Holes in the Earth: Open-Pit Mines Seen From Space



People have become significant earth movers, outpacing all sources of natural erosion. More and more of our footprint can be seen from space in many forms, including cities, reservoirs, agriculture and deforestation. Among the most impressive human scars on the planet are open-pit mines.

We’ve gathered some of the biggest, most spectacular and interesting mines, as captured by astronauts and satellites on the following pages.

Above: Berkeley Pit, Butte, Montana

This former copper mine operated between 1955 and 1982. Gold and silver were also mined. An elaborate system of pumps and drains kept the local water level low enough for mining. Today, the 1,780 foot-deep pit is filled with around 900 feet of very contaminated water filled with metals and chemicals such as arsenic, cadmium, pyrite, zinc, copper and sulfuric acid. The water can be as acidic as battery acid, and copper can actually be “mined” directly from the water.

Currently, the 1-mile-by-0.5-mile pit is listed as a federal Superfund site with the potential to contaminate surrounding ground water, and, surprisingly, is also a tourist attraction, complete with gift shop and $2 admission fee.

This photograph was taken Aug. 2, 2006, by astronauts aboard the International Space Station.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/10/gallery_mines/

[liberal N proud]

1. Look at all those pretty blues and grays and tans

Those people living so close to that excavation must feel so lucky to have that sign of progress right in their own back yards.



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[cmd]

2. I grew up in an area like that

I wasn't nice. Sixty years later trees cover the holes, but the wounds are still there - high walls, deep ponds of sometimes toxic water; spoiled forever. :cry:

[MineralMan]

3. Lots of the people who live there used to work in that mine.

Now, the copper in your wires and the pipes in your house is mined in Africa. No question that this is a bad place, but it has become impossible to do any mining of consequence in the USA. So, we're dependent on mining in the third world and China for raw materials.

Mining could go on here, with rules for reclamation, but it has simply become impossible.