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Bingham Canyon Mine – Largest Man Made Excavation

Monday, November 17th, 2008

Bingham Canyon Mine is the biggest open pit mine in the world. It is situated west of Salt Lake City, Utah, southwest of West Jordan. This is the largest man made excavation on earth, the mine’s actual pit stretches 4 km (2.5 mi) in width and has a depth of 1.2 km (0.75 mi). The amount of copper produced by the mine is greater that any other mine on the Earth. Everyday a massive quantity of material (450.000 tons) is extracted from the pit.

Bingham Canyon Mine features a huge layered multi-color, barren protrusion extending on the side of Oquirrh Mountains lying on the western Salt Lake Valley. Bingham Canyon Mine is the largest copper, gold, lead and zinc porphyry mine in America.

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Although the minerals were discovered in Bingham Canyon during 1850s; however, the extraction from the mine was started in 1873 after the construction of railroad. Settlements increased with construction on the steep walls of the canyon. However, with natural disasters and sophisticated mining techniques, the population of the region declined sharply. In 2005, work started for extending the mine 600 feet east. At present date, full-fledged mining operations continue at Bingham Canyon and it thrives as the biggest open-pit mine on Earth in capacity as well as size.

“This is a 2 shot panorama of the Bingham Canyon Mine West of where I live. It is over 2 1/2 miles across and I dont recall the depth but the Empire State Building wouldn’t even go half way up the mine you see. And I thought Hoover Dam was impressive! There is a small scar from merging the 2 pictures, have no idea how to get rid of it.”- freddyfromutah

“Stitch of Bingham Canyon mine (Bingham, Utah)
Drilling machine drilling holes for dynamite. The wall on the left side will be dynamited soon!” – Berten Smekens

Tags: America, biggest, Bingham Canyon Mine, earth, largest man made excavation, Salt Lake Valley, travel, USA, Utah
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Salar de Uyuni Serves You The World’s Largest Natural Mirror

Monday, March 24th, 2008

“Jumping friends in salar de uyuni”

Have you ever experienced your reflection in a natural mirror right under the sun? No, then visit the Salar de Uyuni, in Southe west Bolivia, close to the crest of Andes, at an altitude of 3,650 meters. The stretch of salt extends to 4,085 square miles and is about 10 meters thick.

During the wet season, the salt stretch transforms into a natural mirror, since a sheet of water layer enables to reflect any image that falls on it. Most of the time, the sunny blue sky is apparently visible in the mirror that makes a stupendous spot for tourists from all round the world.

It has been estimated that the Salar contains about 10 million tons of salt, and about 25.000 tons is extracted every year. That adds to the global benefit. More so, researchers make good use of the salty stretch for testing and calibration of the remote sensing instruments on the satellites. This is extremely useful for studying the Earth. The advantage is that, the sky above Salar is crystal clear; therefore, the surface proves to be five times better for calibration than the surface of the ocean.