Most bizarre disasters caused by man
The Berkeley Pit, Montana
To abandon and remove the bottom bilge pumps, ground water level started to rise, which began a serious environmental problem, because the oxygen in the water, when in contact with pyrite and sulfur minerals copper favors releasing acid decomposition.
To get an idea of the level of pollution reaching these waters, enough to say that copper could be extracted directly from them, or that in 1995 they fell upon a flock of geese and killed 342.
Picher, Oklahoma
Picher, Oklahoma is a small town in northwest Oklahoma near the Kansas and Missouri border. This was once a major center for heavy metal extraction, with some of the most productive lead mines in the world. But in early 1970, all mining operations stopped, leaving 480 miles of underground tunnels, over 180 million tons of toxic waste and a people without a future.
The elevations can be seen in the background are actually remnants of toxic debris from the mine that were obtained by underground drilling operations. These piles of debris, known locally as "chat", fill the landscape of trash, making it towers over 100 feet or more above the village.
Contain mainly extremely fine lead dust that poses severe health risks for citizens.
Lead and zinc have also polluted the drinking water of Picher, as well as water to swim in local lakes.
And to make matters worse, the miles of abandoned mine tunnels that pass below the village, have been collapsing since 1950 and continue today. Due to the geological instability, a good part of town has been declared unsafe for residential use, leaving many poor housing and commercial blocks.
The Aral Sea, Kazakhstan
Until the early 60's the Aral Sea was the fourth largest lake in the world, covering an area of 66,000 square kilometers and stored thousand cubic kilometers of water. They caught each year 40,000 tonnes of fish and their tributaries deltas housed dozens of smaller lakes, wetlands and an area of 550,000 hectares of wetlands. Today is one of the biggest ecological disasters of recent times and a clear, dramatic example of where development can take if you completely ignore the environment where it occurs.Because the transfer of water from the rivers that converge on it, its surface has been reduced dramatically since the 60's of XX century, when it began to divert water from the rivers Amu Darya and Syr Darya to irrigate crops in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. In addition, as a result of weapons testing, industrial projects and fertilizer runoff discharges in the same century, the sea has a high rate of contamination.
The Garbage Patch, Pacific Ocean
The trash from the shores and boats are designed by ocean currents until it has been dubbed "The Great Pacific Garbage Plate, " which weighs in at an estimated total of 3.5 million tonnes, more waste 3.3 million per square kilometer, 80% of them plastic.
Given its location in the North Pacific subtropical gyre, the continued buildup of waste is guaranteed. This is a large area of the Pacific where the water circulates clockwise in a spiral clock slow. There are weak winds and currents tend to force the matter floating in the water to the low energy central area of the eddy.
This garbage is doing irreparable damage to marine life in the area. Plastics are not biodegradable (its degradation takes between 500 and 1,000 years) and, as time passes, the only thing that happens is they are divided into smaller and smaller pieces but retain the original molecular composition. The result is an enormous amount of "sand"of plastic that many marine creatures they think food. The problem is that the plastic can not be digested, so that birds and fish that eat it can die of malnutrition and stomach full of plastic.
Given its location in the North Pacific subtropical gyre, the continued buildup of waste is guaranteed. This is a large area of the Pacific where the water circulates clockwise in a spiral clock slow. There are weak winds and currents tend to force the matter floating in the water to the low energy central area of the eddy.
This garbage is doing irreparable damage to marine life in the area. Plastics are not biodegradable (its degradation takes between 500 and 1,000 years) and, as time passes, the only thing that happens is they are divided into smaller and smaller pieces but retain the original molecular composition. The result is an enormous amount of "sand"of plastic that many marine creatures they think food. The problem is that the plastic can not be digested, so that birds and fish that eat it can die of malnutrition and stomach full of plastic.
Nauru, Micronesia
Decades of strip mining to extract phosphorus damaged more than 80 percent of the land of Nauru, leaving barren irregular limestone pinnacles up to 15 meters. With its depleted reserves, the country's economy collapsed and the devastation left by open pit mining eliminated the possibility of an industry.
