WhiteSnow
Experienced Talker
Joined: 30 Dec 2007
Posts: 34
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 Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2009 12:04 pm Post subject: 10 biggest holes on Earth
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Most of these holes are men made holes.
1. In 1971 a search for gas went wrong when a wholedrilling rig fell into an underground cavern. Natural gas startedcoming up from the hole. It was set alight so it wouldn't killeverything around. For 35 years now the flames keep burning providing an spectacular seen for tourists. At night the burning gas makes the crater seen from miles away. The crater is located in Turkmenistan in the heart of the Karakum desert. The crater is called Darvaza or The Burning Gates.
2. This one is a diamond mine, it located in South Africa. From 1866 to 1914 up to 50,000 miners dug the hole with picks and shovels.
3. This hole look scary, isn't it? Monticello Dam was constructed between 1953 and 1957 (Napa County, California, United States).
4. The Bingham Canyon Mine is an open-pit mine extracting a large porphyrycopper deposit southwest of Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, in the OquirrhMountains.
5. The Great Blue Hole is a large underwater sinkhole off of the coast ofBelize. It lies near the center of Lighthouse Reef, a small atoll 60miles from the mainland and Belize City. The hole is almost perfectlycircular, over 1,000 feet across and 400 feet deep. It was formed as alimestone cave system during the last ice age when sea levels were muchlower. As the ocean began to rise again the caves flooded, and the roofcollapsed.
This site was made famous by Jacques-Yves Cousteau who declared it oneof the top ten scuba diving sites in the world. In 1971 he brought hisship, the Calypso to the hole to chart its depths.
6. Mir Mine (kimberlite diamond pipe “Peace”) is an abandoned open pitdiamond mine located in Mirny, Eastern Siberia. The mine is 525 m deepand has a diameter of 1200 m. It was the first and one of the largestdiamond pipes of the USSR.
7. The Diavik Diamond Mine is a diamond mine in the North Slave Region ofthe Northwest Territories, Canada, about 300 kilometres (186 miles)north of Yellowknife. It has become an important part of the regionaleconomy, employing 700, grossing C$100 million in sales, and producing8 million carats or about 1,600 kg (3,527 lb) of diamonds annually. Thearea was surveyed in 1992 and construction began in 2001, withproduction commencing in January 2003. It is connected by an ice roadand Diavik Airport with a 5,235 feet (1,596 m) gravel runway regularlyaccommodating Boeing 737 jet aircraft.
8. Guatemala city - A 330-foot-deep sinkhole killed at least two teenagersas it swallowed about a dozen homes early Friday and forced theevacuation of nearly 1,000 people in a crowded Guatemala Cityneighborhood. Officials blamed the sinkhole on recent rains and anunderground sewage flow from a ruptured main.
9. Udachnaya pipe is a diamond of Russia, it was discovered on June 15, 1955, it is more than 600 metres deep.
As of 2004, Udachnaya pipe is controlled by Russian diamond company
Alrosa
, which plans to halt open-pit mining in favor of underground mining in 2010.
10. Chuquicamata is a large open pit copper mine in the north of Chile, 215 km northeast of Antofagasta and 1,240 km north of the capital, Santiago.
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