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72 Comments
- Ninh, on 10/29/2009, -1/+47Like the Grand Canyon?
- tdmeth, on 10/29/2009, -0/+36Some of these scars look kinda cool.
- Jonatan10, on 10/28/2009, -0/+35we'll get to the center of the earth sooner or later!
- jll62, on 10/29/2009, -1/+25"The face of the earth is beleaguered with giant scars, scoured out in our ongoing bid to the plunder the planet of its natural resources."
Well, Mother Earth doesn't seem to be using them, so we may as well borrow them for a while. - brianmp007, on 10/29/2009, -8/+29USA! USA!
- OPR8R, on 10/29/2009, -1/+19Human technology is both amazing and frightening.
Where is the rug under which all of that dirt was swept? - postal21, on 10/29/2009, -0/+15I love holes.
- Soriven, on 10/29/2009, -0/+15We've got nothing on Volcanos: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Toba
Lake Toba is a 19 mile x 62 mile crater. - explodingzebras, on 10/29/2009, -0/+14dugg for being all on one page
- dstz, on 10/29/2009, -0/+14Or Meteor Crater...
- aron1185, on 10/29/2009, -0/+14Dirt and rock from quarries like that are probably sold as fill to construction companies.
I'd imagine a lot of building foundations can thank these quarries for the rock beneath them. - kanojo1969, on 10/29/2009, -0/+14If you visit one of these in person, you will change your mind. I've been to the Kalgoorlie pit and it was a weird sensation standing close to the edge - both stomach churning from the height of the cliff and disorienting because you really can't judge how far away the opposite side is. Obviously some of the other, more perfectly cylindrical mines would be much worse.
As for 'credible' or not, well, of course is strictly credible because it exists. But as you stand there watching tiny trucks driven by even tinier men slowly wind their way up the walls, only to emerge eventually at the top as hundred-tonne behemoths, you really do wonder to yourself what sort of beast we are that can create something like this. Maybe not 'incredible' but certainly confronting.
But I have a question. From the satellite photos of some of these, the total area they take up os clearly pretty small compared to the surrounding countryside. For the copper mines in particular, it seems sensible to me that there would be equally vast amounts of the metal just about anywhere else in the local area. So when one of these holes is exhausted, do they just start on a new one a few kilometers away?
If that's the case, and you think about the total square kilometers of a country like Chile... we must have so far only extracted a infinitesimal fraction of the earth's copper reserves. You can marvel at the scope of these efforts but compared to the entirety of the planet, we have done little more than scratch a tiny hole in it's skin. - geoboy, on 10/29/2009, -4/+16God damn humans defacing the earth with their mining activities! The human race should be extinct so mother earth can lay untouched. It's totally okay though when ants deface the earth with their large ant mounds and complex underground tunnels. It's also cool if a meteor slams into the earth every now and then, because at least it wasn't caused by humans!
- Spinzy, on 10/29/2009, -3/+15I love how lots of people seem to think humans aren't natural.
- SirBruce, on 10/29/2009, -7/+17They are beautiful.
Gaia doesn't even notice these little holes; they are like pinpricks to her. - DirtyVicar, on 10/29/2009, -0/+9I've got first dibs on that ball of iron and nickel. But I'll break off some pieces for you guys.
- Spirods, on 10/29/2009, -1/+9only if i got a dime everytime i saw this article, i d have two now!
- robwhite1979, on 10/29/2009, -0/+8My brother used to work at the Ekati diamond mine. He had to fly in and out (like all employees) and they live in total isolation. There are enough people up there to fill a small town, but he said it truly feels like "the end of the earth". He also mentioned that part of the country is amazing and that it was so strange to see such a huge operation in the middle of nowhere. He's mentioned a few times about what a terrible scar it is in an otherwise perfect place...
- Bradygilg, on 10/29/2009, -2/+10It's says 'Earth Scars', there is nothing distinguishing man-made from natural.
- Ninh, on 10/29/2009, -2/+8Not to forget those vicious corals that made the great barrier reef and those atolls.
- danwgre, on 10/29/2009, -0/+5My last flight to Salt lake City gave me an awesome view of the Utah mine. I think if would make an awesome ski resort after its done as a mine.
- EddiePotato, on 10/29/2009, -0/+5Isolated holes in dirt aren't nearly as dubious as the large scale clear cutting of trees. Take a trip over the mountains of WA, OR, and northern CA in Google Earth, or parts of South American and central Africa. If you look closely, you can make out how much bare land was forested relatively recently. It looks like big checkerboards in a lot of the American NW.
- cyrix, on 10/29/2009, -0/+4The Diavik diamond mine looks jaw dropping.
- gordigor, on 10/29/2009, -0/+4I live just down the street from the Bingham Copper Mine. Its too bad they didn't show the side of the mountain. The pit extract dirt is literally covering up the mountain.
- smayn2816, on 10/29/2009, -0/+4I live just a few miles away from the Bingham Canyon Mine. An interesting discovery was made a couple weeks ago, they found a molybdenum deposit underneath the mine. So if they were to dig that up as well, they would have to make the mine another 1,500 ft deep.
http://www.ksl.com/?sid=8202925&nid=148 - Csaliture, on 10/29/2009, -1/+4I eat volcanos for breakfast
- quirkopatra, on 10/29/2009, -0/+3Glad someone else said that.
- digitalArtform, on 10/29/2009, -0/+3Bisbee, AZ giant copper mine pit
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&source=h ...
as seen in The Postman - dctrainor, on 10/29/2009, -0/+3"Where is the rug under which all of that dirt was swept?"
... I present to you Mount Dirt Pile! - smurfjoe, on 10/29/2009, -0/+2More like hilarious.
- firebhaal, on 10/29/2009, -0/+2Chicks digg scars...
glory hole last forever? - lowdose, on 10/29/2009, -0/+2You could buy a gumball!
- Falldog, on 10/29/2009, -0/+2They're actually the beginnings of giant Earth defense lasers. If the author had done a bit more research he'd have found that if one would draw a line from the bottom of each pit, straight up, they'd coincide not far from the atmosphere.
- JDLamb88, on 11/08/2009, -0/+2What use does the Earth have with some rocks, I'm pretty sure it's made of them. And it also probably doesn't distinguish one kind of "precious" rocks from another. Diamonds are useless chunks deep in the ground until we make uses for them.
- JohnnySoftware, on 11/07/2009, -0/+2Well, that is 'reuse'.
- Locastus, on 11/11/2009, -0/+2Yeah but when she goes out for dinner with Jesus, he's all like "Daayum Gaia, what's with all the holes in your face?"
Then she gets self conscious and runs home, leaving Jesus with the bill. - JDLamb88, on 11/08/2009, -1/+2We've got the biggest gaping holes. Giggity.
- Idonteven, on 11/05/2009, -0/+1Really? So the miners who mine the earth don't receive six figure salaries and It's all just my imagination?
- DrLeePhD, on 11/10/2009, -0/+1Diamond Mines.
So which one is it, caret or cut?
You ground down that diamond to a nub and for what?
Why not mount it in it's natural asymmetry?
Who says it's better by prismatic geometry?
Diamonds derive from Ademas like Ademantium and wolverine,
And it's just one stage of pressurized carbon like buckminsterfullerine,
And graphite that writes gems that can never be stolen.
But diamonds are jewels to which kings are beholden. - mouseshoes, on 10/29/2009, -0/+1All that mining and yet a tiny diamond on an engagement ring will still explode your wallet.
- caseycoold, on 11/15/2009, -0/+1You eat rocks? 0.o
- aron1185, on 11/08/2009, -0/+1Sure you can, see technology:
"the practical application of science to commerce or industry"
Pick axes and shovels are applications of a simple machine to industry ;)
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=fire ... - SandWraith, on 10/29/2009, -0/+1I'm not an expert on this, but I know it's highly dependent on the local geology. A lot of heavy metal deposits (as well as oil and natural gas) occur in regions where the underlying layers of rock were bent upwards in the distant past, forming what's called an anticline. If some of the layers of strata in the anticline are impermeable, oil and gas that rise up from deeper layers will become trapped at this point*. I'm not sure if the principle is the same that leads to ore deposits there, but manto ore deposits are generally associated with anticlines and are one of the chief sources of copper. The thing is, an anticline can be very localized, with the nearby geology making synclines or just leveling out, so while there is a rich deposit in one place, it's quite possible there won't be anything similar nearby at all.
- AmericanGunner, on 10/29/2009, -0/+1which one is its cesarean?
- YuleLogger, on 10/29/2009, -0/+1Holey Earth! Batman!
- SassquatchG, on 10/29/2009, -0/+1The bigger the gash the better the cash.
- caseycoold, on 11/15/2009, -0/+1You can't be that stupid to not see the joke. Even if it was lame. Common now.
Also, your equalities are pretty bad, fyi. - dk75eclipse, on 11/03/2009, -0/+1Or a second-hand condom!
- RubberSumo, on 11/05/2009, -0/+1Chicks dig scars...
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