Awesomely horrifying. Horrifyingly awesome. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you
the mouth of the beast.
But money cannot completely resolve the problem. Researchers recently found six unique strains of bacteria that live in a bed of pink slime that is part of a little-understood biochemical cycle that devours iron, produces sulfuric acid, and creates a nightmarish broth of copper, zinc and arsenic. That toxic broth will continue pouring out of the mine forever, or until someone figures out a way to neutralize the chemical and biological reactions, scientists say.
"We spent a good deal of time trying to see if we could shut it down, and our conclusion was that we couldn't," said Sugarek, adding that the only hope is for some future innovation or new technology. "We know we can continue what we are doing for 100 years. The estimate is that it will take the mountain about 3,000 years to use up all the pyrite."
The damp, dark passage where Sugarek stood Thursday was nothing compared with the hellish alien environment deeper inside the mine. There, chemical reactions drive temperatures up to 130 degrees, the water is almost pure sulfuric acid, and stalactites and stalagmites of acid salt cover the walls.
And my own personal favorite bit...
A NASA scientist once sent a robot into the bowels of the mine. It did not return, Sugarek said. Nobody that he knows of has been killed, but Sugarek said a worker testing the water above the debris dam suffered "some exfoliation of the skin" after his rubber raft was punctured and he was forced to swim to safety.
There's a lot to be learned here, if you can study it. Otherwise, it's a fine cautionary tale in creating hell on Earth.