Mirny : World’s Biggest Diamond Mine

Mirny Mine is an open pit diamond mine located in Mirny, Eastern Siberia, Russia. The mine is 525 meters  deep (4th in the world) and has a diameter of 1,200 m and is the second largest excavated hole in the world, after Bingham Canyon Mine.

The mine is so big and giat that the airspace above the mine is closed for helicopters because of a few incidents in which they were sucked in by the downward air flow.

The mine was discovered on June 13, 1955 by Soviet geologists Yuri Khabardin, Ekaterina Elagina and Viktor Avdeenko during the large Amakinsky Expedition in Yakut ASSR. They found traces of volcanic rock kimberlite which are usually associated with diamonds.For this discovery, in 1957 Khabardin was given the Lenin Prize, which was one of the highest awards in the Soviet Union.

To give an idea how big it is here is is a fine illustration.

The development of the mine had started in 1957 in extremely harsh climate conditions. Seven months of winter per year froze the ground, which was hard in winter, but turned into sludge in summer. The entire mine had to be covered at night to prevent the machinery from freezing.

In the 1960s the mine was producing 10,000,000 carats (2,000 kg) of diamond per year, but the production rate slowed to 2,000,000 carats (400 kg) per year near the pit bottom. The largest diamond of the mine was found on 23 December 1980; it weighed 342.5 carats (68 g). The mine operation was interrupted in 1990s at a depth of 340 m after the pit bottom became flooded but resumed later.

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.

Currently, the mine is operated by Alrosa, the largest diamond producing company in Russia, and employs 3600 workers. It has long been anticipated that the recovery of diamonds by conventional surface methods will saturate. Therefore, in 1970s construction has started of a network of underground tunnels for diamond recovery. Production of diamonds by this method started in 1999 and is estimated to last for another 27 years. This estimate is based on depth explorations down to 1220 meters. In order to stabilize the abandoned main pit, its bottom was covered by a rubble layer 45 meters thick.

Atacama Desert : 1 millimetre rainfall per year

The Atacama Desert is a plateau in South America, covering a 600-mile (1,000 km) strip of land on the Pacific coast of South America, west of the Andes mountains. The Atacama occupies 40,600 square miles (105,000 km²) in northern Chile, composed mostly of salt basins, sand, and felsic lava flows towards the Andes.

Atacama Desert is commonly known as the driest place in the world. These incredibly dry mountains see an average of less than .004 inches/.01cm of rain per year. Many times this area will go without rainfall at all for years. Some places in the Atacama Desert have not had rainfall for over 400 years. 

Unlike more familiar deserts, like the Sahara desert in Africa and the Mojave in California, the Atacama is actually a pretty cold place, with average daily temperatures ranging between 0°C and 25°C.

Because of its high altitude, nearly non-existent cloud cover, dry air, and lack of light pollution and radio interference from the very widely spaced cities, the desert is one of the best places in the world to conduct astronomical observations. The European Southern Observatory operates two major observatories in the Atacama: The La Silla Observatory and the Paranal Observatory, which includes the Very Large Telescope. A new radio astronomy telescope, called ALMA, is being built by Europe, Japan, the United States, Canada and Chile in the Llano de Chajnantor Observatory. A number of radio astronomy projects, such as the CBI, the ASTE and the ACT, among others, have been operating in the Chajnantor area since 1999.

      Paranal Observatory

For the most part, Atacama is a pretty lonely place. Humans have lived in the Atacama for many thousands of years, based on the cultural relics and artifacts that archaeologists have found. The South American Indians who have set up housekeeping in the desert over the millennia have left relics from their culture and even themselves. Because the Atacama is so bone-dry the bodies of the buried indians have dried perfectly preserved turning them into mummies. Some of the oldest mummies found anywhere on earth have come from the Atacama Desert and have been dated to be 9,000 years old.

The desert has rich deposits of copper and other minerals, and the world's largest natural supply of sodium nitrate, which was mined on a large scale until the early 1940s. The Atacama border dispute over these resources between Chile and Bolivia began in the 19th century.

A reason that the Atacama doesn't get enough rainfall is because of a phenomenon called rainshadow. The warm, moist tropical air that blows on the tradewinds from the east, which douse the South American rainforest, get hung-up on the east side of the Andes. The mountains are so high in altitude that the air cools, condenses and rains (or snows) on the mountains. As the air descends the other side of the mountain range it warms, holding in its moisture preventing rain from falling on to the ground below.

This is one of the reasons why the Amazon basin and river are the largest anywhere in the world. The mountains that cause the Amazon to be the largest river from collecting all the rainfall are also responsible for preventing the Atacama from ever receiving any rainfall. The driest and one of the wettest places in the world are right next to each other.

Kansai International Airport : landing in the sea

Kansai International Airport (KIX) is the main international airport of Japan's Kansai region, including the cities of Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe.

Kansai International Airport was built at exorbitant cost on an artificial island in Osaka Bay, some 40 kilometers to the south of the city of Osaka.

The airport's single terminal, designed by star Italian architect Renzo Piano, is reputedly the longest building in the world at 1.7 kilometers, over one mile, from end to end. Arrivals are on the 1st floor, while departures are from the 4th floor.

      Kansai International Airport's terminal

Kansai opened in 1994 to relieve undercapacity at Osaka International Airport, which is closer to the city of Osaka and now handles only domestic flights.The second runway was opened on 2 August 2007. Kansai Airport has become an Asian hub, with 499 weekly flights to Asia, 66 weekly flights to Europe and the Middle East, and 35 weekly flights to North America. It was ranked 4th overall in the Airport of the Year 2006 awards named by Skytrax, after Singapore Changi Airport, Hong Kong International Airport and Munich Airport.

The construction of the man-made island, 4 km (2.5 mi) long and 2.5 km (1.6 mi) wide started in 1987.Engineers needed to overcome the extremely high risks of earthquakes and typhoons (with storm surges of up to 3 m (10 ft).The sea wall was finished in 1989 (made of rock and 48,000 tetrahedral concrete blocks). In 1990, a three kilometer bridge was completed to connect the island to the mainland at Rinku Town, at a cost of $1 billion.

                      Kansai Airport's access bridge

The total cost of Kansai Airport so far is $20 billion. This includes land reclamation, two runways, terminal and facilities. Most additional costs were initially due to the island sinking, expected due to the soft soils of Osaka Bay. After construction the rate of sinking was considered so severe that the airport was widely criticized as a geotechnical engineering disaster. The sink rate has since fallen from 50 cm (20 in) during 1994 to 7 cm (2.8 in) in 2008.

       Tower control

      Inside Terminal building

Cox's Bazar : 125 kilometres of sandy beach

Cox’s Bazar, with its incredible 125 km length, is the world’s longest natural sandy sea beach in the world and is situated in a district in the Chittagong Division of Bangladesh near the border of Myanmar.

Cox’s Bazar is the most visited tourist destination in Bangladesh.

Cox’s Bazar is also known by the name "Panowa", the literal translation of which means "yellow flower". Its other old name was "Palongkee". The modern Cox's Bazar derives its name from Captain Cox (died 1799), an officer serving in British India.

Cox's Bazar is visited by a large number of tourists from Britain, America, Korea, Japan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and many other countries each year. Though there is no record kept by the Bangladesh Porjatan Corporation (BPC) on how many people visit the beach annually, an AFP report says that during the winter there can be 10,000 available rooms in the beach area. Accommodations near the beach range from expensive high-end resorts to more reasonable options. Many private hotels, BPC Motels and two "Five star" hotels are located on or near the beach.

The sand at Cox's Bazar beach and surrounding areas is rich in heavy-metal mineral content. The heavy minerals of Cox's Bazar beach sands are dominated by hornblende, garnet, epidote, ilmenites (both unaltered and altered) with magnetite, rutile, pyrite and some hydroxides.

Due to lack of development, publicity and mismanagement; the spot hasn't become a most desirable international tourist destination. Cox’s Bazar now is competing to get top for “New7Wonders of Nature”.

Salar de Uyuni : the world’s largest mirror in the world

Salar de Uyuni is the world's largest salt flat at 10,582 square kilometers (4,086 sq mi). It is located in the Potosí and Oruro departments in southwest Bolivia, near the crest of the Andes, and is elevated 3,656 meters (11,995 ft) above the mean sea level.

The Salar was formed as a result of transformations between several prehistoric lakes. It is covered by a few meters of salt crust, which has an extraordinary flatness with the average altitude variations within one meter over the entire area of the Salar. The crust serves as a source of salt and covers a pool of brine, which is exceptionally rich in lithium. It contains 50 to 70% of the world's lithium reserves, which is in the process of being extracted.

The reflections offered are fascinating and the scenery seems to be surreal, alien. Even when it rains and there is water in the lake,becomes the largest mirror of our planet.

One major tourist attraction is an antique train cemetery. It is 3 kilometers (1.9 mi) outside Uyuni and is connected to it by the old train tracks. The town served in the past as a distribution hub for the trains carrying minerals enroute to Pacific Ocean ports. The trains were mostly used by the mining companies. In the 1940s, the mining industry collapsed, partly because of mineral depletion. Many trains were abandoned, producing the train cemetery. There are proposals to build a museum from the cemetery.

Because the Salar de Uyuni is so flat, NASA is able to utilize it to calibrate some of their satellites. While the Salar de Uyuni itself is devoid of wildlife, it is used as the breeding grounds for some species of pink South American flamingos once a year in November. 

Here is an amazing video from a motorcycle in Salar de Uyuni