Scars on the Earth

From: http://www.theworldgeography.com/2013/06/earth-scars.html

Our planet is covered in pockmarks so deep that they can be seen from space. Some were caused by asteroid strikes, but most are the result of human intervention. Here are some of the most incredible examples of the scarred Earth.

1. Mir Mine, Russia

Mir Mine also called Mirny Mine is a former open pit diamond mine, now inactive, located in Mirny, Eastern Siberia, Russia. The mine is 525 meters (1,722 ft) deep (4th in the world) and has a diameter of 1,200 m (3,900 ft), and is the second largest excavated hole in the world, after Bingham Canyon Mine.

The airspace above the mine is closed for helicopters because of incidents in which they were sucked in by the downward air flow.

The Mir mine was the first and the largest diamond mine in the Soviet Union. Its surface operation lasted 44 years, finally closing in June 2001. After the collapse of the USSR, in the 1990s, the mine was operated by the Sakha diamond company, which reported annual profits in excess of $600 million from diamond sales.
2. Gosses Bluff Crater, Australia

Gosses Bluff (Gosse's Bluff) is thought to be the eroded remnant of an impact crater. It is located in the southern Northern Territory, near the centre of Australia, about 175 km (109 mi) west of Alice Springs and about 212 km (132 mi) to the northeast of Uluru (Ayers Rock). It was named by Ernest Giles in 1872 after Australian explorer William Gosse's brother Henry, who was a member of William's expedition.

The original crater rim has been estimated at about 22 km (14 mi) in diameter, but this has been eroded away. The 5 km (3.1 mi) diameter, 180 m (590 ft) high crater-like feature, now exposed, is interpreted as the eroded relic of the crater's central uplift.

The impact origin of this topographic feature was first proposed in the 1960s, the strongest evidence coming from the abundance of shatter cones. In the past the crater has been the target of petroleum exploration, and two abandoned exploration wells lie near its centre.

3. Diavik Diamond Mine, Canada

The Diavik Diamond Mine is a diamond mine in the North Slave Region of the Northwest Territories, Canada, about 300 kilometres (190 mi) north of Yellowknife. It has become an important part of the regional economy, employing 700, grossing C$100 million in sales, and producing approximately 7.5 million carats (1,500 kg (3,300 lb)) of diamonds annually.

The area was surveyed in 1992 and construction began in 2001, with production commencing in January 2003. It is connected by an ice road and Diavik Airport with a 5,235 ft (1,596 m) gravel runway regularly accommodating Boeing 737 jet aircraft.

The mine is owned by a joint venture between the Harry Winston Diamond Corporation and Diavik Diamond Mines Inc., a subsidiary of Rio Tinto Group. The lifespan of the mine is expected to be 16 to 22 years. It is about 220 km (140 mi) south of the Arctic Circle.

4. Meteor Crater, USA

 

 

 

Meteor Crater is a meteorite impact crater approximately 43 miles (69 km) east of Flagstaff, near Winslow in the northern Arizona desert of the United States. Because the United States Board on Geographic Names commonly recognizes names of natural features derived from the nearest post office, the feature acquired the name of "Meteor Crater" from the nearby post office named Meteor.

It is about 1,200 m (3,900 ft) in diameter, some 170 m deep (570 ft), and is surrounded by a rim that rises 45 m (148 ft) above the surrounding plains. The center of the crater is filled with 210–240 m (690-790 ft) of rubble lying above crater bedrock. One of the interesting features of the crater is its squared-off outline, believed to be caused by pre-existing regional jointing (cracks) in the strata at the impact site.

The crater is privately owned by the Barringer family through their Barringer Crater Company,  which proclaims it to be "best preserved meteorite crater on Earth.

5. Kimberley Big Hole, South Africa

Kimberley (city) is the home of De Beers Consolidated Diamond Mines, some of the world's richest diamond mines, and it is still considered to be the capital of the world's diamond industry. As the centre for the diamond fever of the late 19th century, its foundations began to be dug in 1871 when a diamond was found on a small hill called Colesberg Koppie.

Digging began and only a few months later more than 30 000 men were frantically excavating for diamonds in an area covering 300m (980ft) by 200m (660ft).

They made short work of the hill and soon plunged down into the earth to a depth of 1100 metres (3,600ft) to create what came to be known simply as the ‘Big Hole'.

 

 

 

28 million tons of dirt was removed, yielding 14.5 million carats of diamonds and resulting in the creation of the largest man made hole in the world. It was here that the famous Star of Africa was found, a magnificent 83.5 carat diamond.

6. Pingualuit Crater, Canada

The Pingualuit Crater (Inuktitut: "where the land rises") is located in the Ungava Peninsula of Quebec, Canada. It is 3.44 km (2.14 mi) in diameter. The crater is exposed to the surface, rising 160 m (520 ft) above the surrounding tundra and is 400 m (1,300 ft) deep.

A 267 m (876 ft) deep Pingualuk Lake fills the depression, and is one of the deepest lakes in North America. The lake also holds some of the purest fresh water in the world. The lake has no inlets or apparent outlets, so the water accumulates solely from rain and snow and is only lost through evaporation. In terms of transparency, it is one of most transparent lakes in the world, with Secchi disk visible more than 35 m (115 ft) deep.

7. Tswaing Crater, South Africa

Tswaing is an impact crater in South Africa. This astrobleme is 1.13 km (0.7mi) in diameter and 100 m (330 ft) deep. The impactor is believed to have been a chondrite or stony meteorite some 30 to 50 m (100-165 ft) in diameter that was vaporized during the impact event.

The name Tswaing means Place of Salt in Tswana and the crater was also formerly known in English: as Pretoria Saltpan crater and in Afrikaans: as Soutpankrater. Water in the crater comes from surface springs, ground water and rain water and is rich in dissolved carbonates and sodium chlorides.

Tswana and Sotho people harvested the salt by filtering and decoction between 1200 and 1800. Between 1912 and 1956 brine was pumped from the floor of the crater by the company SA Alkali Ltd. in order to extract soda and salt. Tswaing is currently on the tentative list for consideration as a World Heritage Site.

8. Wolfe Creek Crater, Australia

Wolfe Creek Crater is a well-preserved meteorite impact crater (astrobleme) in Western Australia. It is accessed via the Tanami Road 150 km (93 mi) south of the town of Halls Creek. The crater is central to the Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater National Park.

The crater averages about 875 metres (2.870 ft) in diameter, 60 metres (197 ft) from rim to present crater floor and it is estimated that the meteorite that formed it had a mass of about 50,000 tonnes. Small numbers of iron meteorites have been found in the vicinity of the crater, as well as larger so-called 'shale-balls', rounded objects made of iron oxide, some weighing as much as 250 kg (550 pounds).

 

 

 

It was brought to the attention of science after being spotted during an aerial survey in 1947, investigated on the ground two months later, and reported in publication in 1949. The European name for the crater comes from a nearby creek, which was in turn named after Robert Wolfe (early reports misspell the name as Wolf Creek), a prospector and storekeeper during the gold rush that established the town of Halls Creek.
9. Grasberg Mine, Indonesia

The Grasberg Mine is the largest gold mine and the third largest copper mine in the world. It is located in the province of Papua in Indonesia near Puncak Jaya, the highest mountain in Papua, and it has 19,500 employees.

It is majority owned through a subsidiary by Freeport-McMoRan, own 90.64% of PT Freeport Indonesia, the principal operating subsidiary in Indonesia, including 9.36% owned through its wholly owned subsidiary, PT Indocopper Investama.

The Government of Indonesia owns the remaining 9.36% of PT Freeport Indonesia. FCX operates under an agreement with the Government of Indonesia, which allows Freeport to conduct exploration, mining and production activities in a 24,700-acre area (Block A). It also conducts exploration activities in an approximate 500,000-acre area (Block B). The 2006 production was 610,800 tonnes of copper; 58,474,392 grams of gold; and 174,458,971 grams of silver.
10. Ekati Diamond Mine, Canada

The Ekati Diamond Mine ("Ekati") is Canada's first surface and underground diamond mine. It is located 310 km (190 mi) north-east of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, and about 200 km (120 mi) south of the Arctic circle, near Lac de Gras.

Ekati is a joint venture between Dominion Diamond Corporation (80%), and the two geologists who discovered kimberlite pipes north of Lac de Gras, Chuck Fipke and Stewart Blusson each holding a 10% stake in the mine.

Between 1998 and 2009, the mine has produced 40 million carats (8,000 kg or 17,637 lb) of diamonds out of six open pits. As the high grade ore close to surface was depleted, development was completed to access the ore utilizing underground methods.

11. Bingham Canyon Mine, USA

The Bingham Canyon Mine, also known as the Kennecott Copper Mine, is an open-pit mining operation extracting a large porphyry copper deposit southwest of Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, in the Oquirrh Mountains. The mine is owned by Rio Tinto Group, an international mining and exploration company headquartered in the United Kingdom.

The copper operations at Bingham Canyon Mine are managed through Kennecott Utah Copper Corporation which operates the mine, a concentrator plant, a smelter, and a refinery. The mine has been in production since 1906, and has resulted in the creation of a pit over 0.6 miles (0.97 km) deep, 2.5 miles (4 km) wide, and covering 1,900 acres (770 ha). It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966 under the name Bingham Canyon Open Pit Copper Mine.

At 9:30 pm on April 10, 2013, a landslide occurred at the mine. Mining operations were shut down the previous day in anticipation of the slide. The massive slide is expected to cut production of mined copper by 113 kt

12. Super Pit, Australia

The Fimiston Open Pit, colloquially known as the Super Pit, is Australia's largest open cut gold mine. The Super Pit is located off the Goldfields Highway on the south-east edge of Kalgoorlie, Western Australia.

The pit is oblong in shape and is approximately 3.5 kilometres (2.2 mi) long, 1.5 kilometres (0.9 mi) wide and 570 metres (1870 ft) deep. At these dimensions, it is large enough to be seen from space.

The Super Pit is owned by Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines Pty Ltd, a company owned 50/50 by Barrick Gold Corporation and Newmont Mining Corporation. The mine produces 850,000 ounces (28 tonnes) per year of gold, and employs around 550 employees directly on site.