Amazing Holes in the earth
You can say it nature’s fury or a human blunder in search for nature’s wealth. These collection of holes on our earth’s surface are not only huge but amazing. Most of these holes are diamond mines like Kimberly mines, Diavik mines etc. It reminds us of how tiny we are when we compare ourselves to these holes.
Sinkhole in Guatemala
This sinkhole occurred in early 2007 in Guatemala . The hole swallowed a dozen homes and killed at least 3 people. It is reported to be 330 foot deep (100 meter).
Udachnaya Pipe, Russia
It is a diamond mine in Russia and was discovered in 1955. It s almost 600 meters deep and the open mining in this pit will be ceased in 2010 in favor of underground mining.
Mirny Diamond Mine Siberia
I’m pretty sure most people have seen this one. It’s an absolute beast and holds the title of largest open diamond mines in the world. At 525 meters deep, with a top diameter of 1200 meters, there’s even a no-fly zone above the hole due to a few helicopters having been sucked in.
Great Blue Hole, Belize
The Great Blue Hole is a large underwater sinkhole off of the coast of Belize. It lies near the center of Lighthouse Reef, a small atoll 45 miles from the mainland and Belize City. The hole is circular in shape, over 1,000 feet across and 400 feet deep. It was formed as a limestone cave system during the last ice age when sea levels were much lower. As the ocean began to rise again the caves flooded, and the roof collapsed.
Monticello Dam, California
The Monticello Dam is a dam in Napa County, California, United States most noted for its large circular spillway. The Monticello Dam’s spillway is
otherwise (and affectionately) known as The Glory Hole. The glory hole is located about 200 feet from the dam. Water spills over its lip when the lake reaches 1,602,000 acre-feet. The funnel’s largest diameter is 72 feet and narrows to about 28 feet. It is designed to handle a maximum of 362,000 gallons of water per second, which occurs when the lake level rises to 15.5 feet above the level of the funnel.
Bingham Canyon Mine, Utah
The Bingham Canyon 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 0.75 mile (1.2 km) deep, 2.5 miles (4 km) wide and covers 1,900 acres. It is the world’s largest manmade excavation.It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966 under the name Bingham Canyon Open Pit Copper Mine.
Kimberley Diamond Mine, South Africa
The Kimberley Diamond Mine (also known as the Big Hole) holds the (disputed) title of being the largest hand-dug hole in the world. From 1866 to 1914 50,000 miners dug the hole with picks and shovels, yielding 2,722 kg of diamonds. Attempts are being made to have it registered as a world heritage site.
Diavik Mine, Canada
The Diavik Diamond Mine is a diamond mine in the North Slave Region of the Northwest Territories, Canada, about 300 kilometres north of Yellowknife. It has become an important part of the regional economy, employing 700, grossing C$100 million in sales, and producing 8 million carats or about 1,600 kg (3,500 lb) of diamonds annually. The area was surveyed in 1992 and construction began in 2001, with production commencing in January 2003.
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Pingback by Belize » Amazing Holes in the earth on 26 October 2008:
[...] Amazing Holes in the earthThe Great Blue Hole is a large underwater sinkhole off of the coast of Belize. It lies near the center of Lighthouse Reef, a small atoll 45 miles from the mainland and Belize City. The hole is circular in shape, over 1000 feet across … [...]
Comment by PJ on 26 October 2008:
Great post on wholes!
I live in Canada and live right behind a massive whole in Quebec where every day the blast at 11:50 am. It’s a great way for me to keep time. It’s fascinating to see how many man made wholes there are all over the world. Thanks for posting the great images!
PJ
Comment by Ryan on 26 October 2008:
I can’t believe that the hole in South Africa was hand-dug, that is a serious amount of work.
Comment by khaled on 27 October 2008:
The Chuquicamata copper mine in Chile is a pretty big hole as well. Its amazing to think how much wealth comes out of the various mines and how little is actually invested back into the surrounding communities.
Comment by Ajay M on 27 October 2008:
@ Khaled,
You made a great point here. here should be enough precautionary measure taken for the community surrounding these massive holes as there life will always be in jeopardy.
Comment by Roger Hamilton on 28 October 2008:
Some of those really look beautiful but yeah those in cities are pretty dangerous.
Comment by Dave on 28 October 2008:
These earth holes are so fascinating. I live just south of the Bingham Copper Mine. It’s so impressive to stand at the top of the hole and look down at how deep it goes.
Comment by Water on 29 October 2008:
Wow, It’s really beautiful, but some of them look dangerous.
Comment by Roger Hamilton on 3 November 2008:
Nice photos . This is an interesting post. Thanks for sharing ! Hope too see your update soon.
Comment by cloudy on 6 November 2008:
These pictures are super, very impressive.
Living in the UK where really the only mines we have left are coal mines, I tend to associate mining with dirt and destruction, but some of these places are beautiful. It just goes to show how wrong you can be about things.
Trackback by HG on 12 November 2008:
great blue hole belize…
Belize is such a wonderful place. I have been diving and taking adventures there for many years. I can strongly recommend Placencia….
Comment by Wattmizer on 18 November 2008:
These earth holes are really unseen .I never saw such big earth holes. That one with water filled in it , in ocean is looking very beautiful. It is dangerous too.
Comment by Phao Loo on 25 November 2008:
That’s amazing holes I’ve never seen before. Can’t image what will happen to me if I fall in one of these holes.
Comment by Ozzy Robin on 4 December 2008:
Wow! That hole in the water near the Monticello Dam is a bit freaky.. Great post! I learnt something new..
Comment by JoycePorter on 12 December 2008:
The hole in Kimberly looks really great, does people who works on those mine earns a lot?
Pingback by 10 most popular Posts of the year 2008 | Techie Zone on 31 December 2008:
[...] 6. Amazing Holes in the earth [...]
Comment by Ernie Small on 17 January 2009:
very cool post.
i live right by Napa County, so i’m going to have to check out the monticello dam (never seen it). i think i feel a little “glory hole” road trip coming on for this weekend!
Comment by Janet Halsketten on 19 January 2009:
This holes look pretty amazing. Must be a great idea to visit them, but they are always dangerous, so you really have to watch out that you don’t fall into such a hole. Thanks for this nice post.
Comment by Schmuck Anhaenger on 21 January 2009:
Nice post =) Really good blog for learning new things. would be nice to travel there
Comment by Rose on 25 January 2009:
These big holes are awesome to see on photos. But they should be fearsome when you live near them. Mankind should really be careful on whatever they do on Mother Earth. Carelessness is one of the reasons why dire things such as big floods, earthquakes, and tsunami happen to us frequently.
Comment by Sonderversicherung on 28 January 2009:
The holes may look amazing but they just show how greedy and selfish we humans are. Greedy, because of our search for nature’s wealth, we tend to forget about the nature itself by creating these huge holes…and most of these holes are diamond mines. Selfish, because we don’t care about the effect of these holes to the environment. Yes they are nice to look at but it’s very dangerous if you’re near these holes.
Comment by cortinas on 29 January 2009:
Those things almost look like CGI. Unbelievable.
I particularly find the Glory Hole to be of extreme interest.