The Eye of the Sahara (another famous name is Güel Er Richat) is, dare I say it, a mind-blowing geological formation in the Sahara Desert of the same name in Mauritania. I give such epithets not to the size of this geological monument of the Earth, which is at least 50 kilometers in diameter, but to the shape of the so-called “eye” in the context of a ring-shaped description of the capital. In the photo of Sahara’s eye you can clearly see exactly the same ring-like appearance. In orbit, the eye is clearly visible and sometimes serves as a kind of “North Star” for astronauts.
Is there a connection between Güell Er Richat and Atlantis?
A description of the location of Atlantis has already been given previously. It was located in the direction from the narrator (Plato, who lived in Greece) behind the Pillars of Hercules (Gibraltar). Everything is almost the same, the only eye of the Sahara is located not further west in the Atlantic, where most researchers point to the probable location of Atlantis, but further south in western Africa. In addition to the ring-shaped shape, the description also correlates with low mountains and steep cliffs on the borders of the Atlantean lands. The Eye of the Sahara is located on a mountain plateau, ending along the perimeter, as expected, with steep cliffs.
Also, as can be seen from the presented interactive map, Mauritania, on whose territory the eye of the Sahara is located, is adjacent to Mali, where a mysterious tribe currently lives, possessing knowledge about space since ancient times.
This is where the indirect evidence of the connection between the eye of the Sahara and Atlantis ends. The main evidence for the presence of Atlantis in this place could be provided by positive results excavations But data on them could not be found in open sources. Although individual studies indicate the existence in this area of tribes who mastered the art of trepanation. Judging by the remains found, the patients remained alive after these operations, carried out back in the Stone Age, about 9 thousand years ago. However, these studies do not confirm the existence of a highly developed civilization in this area. The life of the people who inhabited the territory of the present desert was not fundamentally different from the life of people of other tribal groups of the Stone Age.
Although, if we put aside skepticism and the lack of direct facts and turn on the imagination, then based on the above, it will fully depict the scale of Atlantis in the Sahara: on a huge mountain plateau there is a state with a capital with an approximate diameter of 50 km. with development in the area of ring-shaped protrusions of land separated by water channels of the same shape. And from the city canals the waterway extended all the way to the ocean. And although this next “Atlantis” may not have been swallowed up by its ocean waters, the reasons for people leaving here may be quite trivial, as in Mesoamerica, climate change 12-10 thousand years ago or later. Until that time, there was no desert here, there was lush vegetation, plenty of water and food. And all thanks to the retreating glaciers of the latter ice age. Gradual desertification has forced people to look for a home elsewhere.
Age and causes of Saharan eye formation
Geological studies of the eye of the Sahara make it possible to establish the approximate age of this formation - approximately 500 million years.
But no one can reliably name the reasons for such a bizarre shape, although many versions are expressed:
- The fall of an asteroid - there are no characteristic traces and, accordingly, an impact crater characteristic of such an event.
- Volcanic formation - this version also not confirmed; igneous rocks characteristic of the eruption were not found. And for the remains of a mud volcano, the scale is too large.
- Erosion of a mountain plateau - yes, but the question of why erosion affected this particular part of the plateau, and even gave the rocks such a bizarre shape, no one is currently able to answer.
- Artificial formation is a hypothesis generated by the lack of answers to the previous three, but it also has no evidence.
So, it becomes clear that we don’t understand anything about the eye of the Sahara... This grandiose formation in our technological times is a mystery. And until scientists find sufficient evidence to confirm any of the listed versions or even a new one, we can always imagine that the eye of the Sahara is traces of the activity of an ancient proto-civilization. A civilization so ancient that even traces of it cannot now be found. Or are they hidden from us?
Well, a little multimedia on the topic wouldn’t hurt...
The Richat structure, or "Eye of the Sahara" (Guelb er Richat, Guel er Richat) is an amazing geological formation located in the Mauritanian part of this arid desert. The lifeless spaces of the crater resemble lunar landscapes. The diameter of the outer circle of the structure is 50 kilometers.
Single version of origin natural phenomenon, which arose about 600 million years ago, no. According to one hypothesis, the structure is the site of a large meteorite that collided with the Earth's surface at a right angle. Another version calls Richat a vent extinct volcano, gradually collapsing inward over millions of years. Finally, the fantastic third assumption refers either to an alien origin or to Atlantis. Yet most scientists are inclined to believe that the structure arose as a result of erosion. However, there is a flaw in this hypothesis: experts cannot yet explain the rather sharply defined boundaries of the geological formation.
The best time to visit the Richat structure is from December to March. At this time, the Sahara Desert is not so hot and you can travel in comfortable temperatures. Make sure you have suitable clothing, hats and sunscreen necessary in advance.
How to get there
The settlement closest to the Richat structure is Wadan (Quadane) located 20 kilometers southwest of its center. You can get to the depression along a dirt road that runs along Wadi Oued Slil, a dry river bed. Sometimes the valley fills with water, so you should check the weather conditions before going.
The best way to see the amazing landscapes is to go to the center of the crater, accompanied by a local guide. Finding a guide in Wadan is not difficult; residents offer their services as tour guides. However, most organized tours start from Atar, large city, located approximately 200 kilometers to the southwest. The cost of such a trip includes not only a transfer to the center of Richat by SUV, but also meals (the menu should be discussed in advance; as a rule, tourists are offered salads and chicken) and a night in a tent in the middle of lifeless spaces. There are no other accommodation options on the territory of this geological phenomenon.
Location
The Richat structure is located in the western part of the Sahara Desert, near the settlement of Wadan, in the northwest.
Secrets of Guell Er Richat
(Attention, this work is equipped with 23 photographs and you can view them by following this link: http://h.ua/story/410826/#)
On our planet there are still many mysterious places about the origin of which neither modern history nor even more so modern science cannot give any clear explanation.
And one of these places is the so-called “Eye of the Sahara” or, in the language of geologists, “the Richat structure”, which is located in the western part of the Sahara Desert and which is now the territory of the African state of Mauritania.
You, dear reader, will find out exactly where the Richat Structure is located by looking at this map.
As you can see, the place, although deserted, is by no means cut off from civilization. Near the “Richat Structure” there is also a Moorish settlement named Ouadan, which has existed since the 12th century AD. e., what translated into Russian means “city of scientists” or “city of palm trees”?
In the above photos, you, dear reader, can see that the “Eye of the Sahara” or Güell-er-Richat is, first of all, “mysterious circles”, cut by an unknown force among the monotonous desert landscape in solid rock.
Moreover, the circles seem to be located one inside the other and in such “steps”, decreasing in diameter, go deep into the rock.
The Richat Structure itself was formed gradually, ring by ring.
Yes and age geological formation more than venerable!
After all, geologists who examined the unique object firmly claim that the oldest ring of Guel-er-Richat has a diameter of 50 km! and its geological age is not “younger” than 600,000,000 years!
More precisely, it is believed that the Richat Structure was formed during the period between the late Proterozoic and Ordovician (the oldest ring is 500-600 million years old).
But this is the first of a series of “circles” of the structure of Güell-er-Richat.
It is clear that with such an impressive scale, the contours of the rings can only be detected at a significant height from the object.
And the connection with which the Guel-er-Richat object was aside from general development Sciences. Scientists simply did not know about it until 1965!
But with the beginning of the space age, i.e. Since about 1965, the world learned about it and began to actually study this phenomenon!
I’ll say right away that the emergence of the problem of the emergence of “Güell-er-Richat” did not cause much excitement in the scientific world.
But for astronauts this earthly object became a clear reference point during flights as a “space beacon”.
For example, cosmonaut Valentin Lebedev, examining in October 1982 this amazing in its practical round shape and the unusual structure of the geological object from the window of the Salyut-7 station, associated it with a children's pyramid assembled from rings various colors.
As for the scientists, in the end, trying to understand the Guel-er-Richat phenomenon, they were only able to put forward a few scientific hypotheses.
Version one is the place where the meteorite fell.
Alas, this first version was not immediately confirmed in the scientific world, since there is no depression on the surface of the earth in the center of the structure, as in other places of the fall cosmic bodies. And there are no traces of impact on the rocks.
The second version is the crater of an extinct volcano. The Richat structure consists of dolomite sedimentary rocks, and complete absence volcanic rocks and a volcanic dome negated this assumption.
Version three is fantastic.
“This is the landing site of aliens,” some say. “Atlantis was here,” others say.
But no one can prove either the first or the second.
Version four is the result of erosion.
According to scientists, the platform in this place rose and fell, constantly weathering, which led to such a layered formation.
That is, first the earth’s crust rose, and then the wind and water flows– it was centuries-old erosion that led to the appearance of an all-seeing eye on the face of the planet.
To date, this version is the most plausible.
According to the conclusions of experts, the age of this geological formation, which received the names “eye of the desert” and “navel of the earth” thanks to the media, is 500-600 million years, that is, theoretically reaches the Proterozoic period
With the tacit consent of other scientists, this version is currently the determining one, as if emphasizing the scientific weakness in understanding the nature of the formation of this anomaly. But even this theory does not provide a comprehensive explanation of Richat’s strict geometry, so the question of where the regular circles in the middle of the desert came from still remains open.
And if you, dear reader, are interested in the secret of the formation of Guel-er-Richat, I will try to independently find more information on this issue, then, alas, you will not find anything new from what your author cited above.
But this does not mean that the great discovery of the true origin of the Guel-Er-Richat rings will be made for you someday, by anyone.
And although the secret of the formation of Güell-er-Richat remains unsolved, your author dares to offer his own version.
“The geological formation of Guell Er Richat is an open-pit mine for the extraction of minerals”!
And if so, then, dear reader, before you start challenging the “author’s version,” you first of all need to replenish your personal knowledge about quarries! And this is the information I am giving you.
Career;r (from the French carri;re), variant: section - a set of mine workings formed during the extraction of minerals open method; open-pit mining enterprise.
Just as a mine is allocated a mine field, a quarry is allocated a mining allotment.
Principle open source development lies in the fact that the thicker layers of waste rock located on top, covering the mineral, within the mining allotment are divided into horizontal layers - ledges, which are removed sequentially in the direction from top to bottom with the lower layers ahead of the upper ones.
The height of the ledge depends on the strength of the rocks and the technology used and ranges from several meters to several tens of meters.
Quarry elements (English open-pit elements, German Tagebauelemente) are the spatial components of a quarry that comprehensively characterize its geometry. Essential elements
working (1) and non-working (2) side of the quarry;
sole or bottom (3);
upper and lower contours (4) of the quarry;
ledges (5,6);
sites (7.8)
Quarry bottom
The bottom of the quarry is the area of the lower ledge of the quarry (also called the bottom of the quarry). In the conditions of development of steep and inclined mineral bodies, the minimum dimensions of the quarry bottom are determined taking into account the conditions for the safe removal and loading of rocks from the last ledge: in width - not less than 20 m, in length - not less than 50-100 m.
In conditions of development of morphologically complex deposits of significant extension, the bottom of the quarry may have a stepped shape.
Pit depth
The depth of the quarry is the vertical distance between the level of the earth's surface and the bottom of the quarry or the distance from the upper contour of the quarry to the lower one. There are design, final and maximum pit depths. (See deep quarry).
The deepest quarries in the world reach a depth of almost 1 km. The deepest quarry is Bingham Canyon (Utah, USA), the Chuquicamata quarry (Chile) has a depth of more than 850 m
Limit contour of the quarry
The limiting contour of a quarry is the contour of a quarry for the period of its repayment, that is, the cessation of work on the extraction of minerals and stripping.
Dear reader, you can now easily find all the above-mentioned elements of the quarry by looking at the photographs below taken in Guel-Er-Richat!!!
To complete the reader’s perception of the author’s version, I will also talk about modern technology and organization of work in the quarry.
The quarry is a system of ledges (usually the upper ones are rock or overburden, the lower ones are mining), which are constantly moving, ensuring the excavation of rock mass within the contours of the quarry field.
The rock mass is moved various types transport. Transport connections in the quarry are provided by permanent or sliding ramps, and with the surface - by trenches.
During operation, the working benches move, resulting in an increase in mined-out space.
During stripping operations, the overburden is moved to dumps, which are sometimes placed in the goaf.
With a quarry depth of up to 100 m with strong containing rocks, the cost price is 1 m; Up to 25-30% of overburden is taken up by drilling and blasting operations, 12-16% by excavation, 35-40% by transport and 10-15% by construction of the quarry itself.
As the depth of the quarry increases, the portion of transport costs increases to 60-70%.
To drill blast holes in a quarry, heavy drilling rigs weighing up to 100-130 tons (type SBSh-250) and light drilling rigs are used.
Granulated ammonium nitrate granulites, gramonites (a mixture of nitrate with TNT) and water-filled explosives (in flooded wells) are used as explosives.
The main excavation and loading equipment for coal and ore mining are electric excavators with a cable drive and a bucket with a capacity of 15-30 m3; with boom length up to 26 m.
At the same time, hydraulic straight mechanical shovels with buckets with a capacity of 10-38 m are very common; Single-bucket loaders with buckets with a capacity of 4-20 m are used;
In stripping operations, increasingly powerful shovels and draglines are being introduced (for example, an overburden shovel weighing 12 thousand tons with a bucket with a capacity of 135 m is used; with a drive power of 22 thousand kW and a dragline weighing 12 thousand kW and a dragline weighing 12 thousand tons with bucket with a capacity of 168 m; with a boom length of 92 m).
Flow technology in the quarry is achieved by using rotary excavators (with a rotor diameter of 22 m and buckets with a capacity of 6.6 m; the daily productivity of the machine is up to 240 thousand m;).
In quarries of medium and low power, compact bucket wheel excavators with reduced operating parameters show high efficiency.
In quarries with hard rocks, the largest volume of transportation is carried out by heavy dump trucks.
Mining dump trucks with a carrying capacity of 100-155 tons are a common means of transport. Their maneuverability and power make them capable of negotiating steep slopes.
200-300 ton dump trucks are also used. To transport rock mass from the quarry, railway traction units with a coupling weight of 360 tons and dump cars with a carrying capacity of up to 180 tons are used. Self-propelled quarry crushers are used on caterpillar, wheeled and walking-rail tracks with a weight of up to 600 tons and a productivity of 5 thousand tons per year.
The use of crushing units in quarries makes it possible to move to a wider use of conveyor systems
Advancement of work in the quarry
Advancement of the work front in the quarry is one of the indicators of the intensity of field development.
The advancement of the work front in a quarry is characterized by speed, that is, the distance of movement of the mining work front, expressed in meters per unit of time (for the most part - per year). The speed depends on the scale of the work, the type and design of the loading and transport equipment that is used, the method of moving the mining front and the height of the benches that are being mined.
There are fan-shaped, equilateral and mixed advances of the work front in a quarry.
Fan advance - movement of the front of mining operations when developing a quarry field (or part of it) of a rounded shape, which is characterized by a higher speed of advance of separated from turning point sections of the front (movement of the front in a “fan”, “fanwise” plan).
Front advance is equilateral - movement of the mining front parallel to one of the axes of the quarry field from one boundary to another or from an intermediate position to the contours.
The front advance is mixed - a combination of different schemes for the advance of the mining front, for example, equilateral and fan-shaped.
As for the history of quarries recorded in the written history of mankind, it should be noted that open mining work known from the Paleolithic era.
The first large quarries appeared in connection with construction in Ancient Egypt pyramids
Later in the ancient world in quarries in on a large scale marble was mined.
The expansion of the scope of application of the open-pit mining method using quarries continued until the beginning. twentieth century, due to the lack of highly productive machines for removing and moving large volumes of overburden.
At the end of the twentieth century, 95% of construction rocks, more than 70% of ores, 90% of brown coal and 20% of hard coal were mined in quarries.
Most big quarry on the Earth plan, line by line by people, this is Chuquicamata (Spanish: Chuquicamata)), in which copper ore is mined at the deposit of the same name.
Is located in central Andes at an altitude of 2840 m in northern Chile, 240 km northeast of the city of Antofagasta
It is part of the Chilean National Copper Corporation, the largest copper producer in the world.
For many years the quarry was known as the most large quarry in the world with the largest daily volume of extracted and transported rock mass: ore and overburden. However, he recently lost the palm to the Escondida career (Minera Escondida). Nevertheless, it is the largest quarry in the world.
Its dimensions are: 4.3 km in length; 3 km wide and 850 m deep. The field has been developed since 1915.
Now compare with the size of the Richat Structure (Güell Er Richat) in a circular diameter of 50 km!
It’s a pity that no one bothered to measure the depth? And those found in different descriptions depth figures from 600m to 1600 somehow raise doubts.
But all this can be easily corrected if, of course, we re-engage with the history of the education of Güell-er-Richat using the data of modern science.
And in this fifth version, we should be primarily interested in one more important circumstance!
If Güell Er Richat is the largest open-pit quarry in the world, then who! and what minerals were mined there?!
To the question “Who built the mine later called by people “Guel El Richat?” there is one answer.
This was not done by God, who has nothing to do with setting up a quarry for mining on some planet, and not by people, in the understanding that there is a human race on Earth.
After all, according to scientific data modern man, Homo sapiens, appeared as a result of evolution, separating from other hominids, great apes and placental mammals about 200 thousand years ago.
It must also be said that modern man, in turn, is a descendant of other species of people, including the most ancient of the known species living in Europe - Homo antecessor (Predecessor Man), who lived from 1.2 million to 800 thousand . years ago.
In general, the concept of the first person in science is not clearly defined, and it usually means the most ancient fossil species, in a number of formal characteristics similar to Homo sapiens. However, the approximate boundary between a human and a non-human hominid is considered to be a creature with a brain volume of 600 cubic centimeters. Our ancestors with a brain volume of 650-680 cubic cm. already belong to Homo habilis.
Predecessor man or antecedent man (lat. Homo antecessor) is a fossil species of people that existed from 1.2 million to 800 thousand years ago. Homo antecessor is considered the most ancient hominid in Europe (only Homo georgicus, discovered in Georgia near the village of Dmanisi, is older - its age reaches 1.7-1.8 million years).
According to most anthropologists, Homo antecessor is the direct predecessor of Heidelberg man, and possibly the common ancestor of Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. The similarity with Homo georgicus allows us to see it as an archaic subspecies of Homo erectus.
And the Güell-Er-Richat quarry, as you already know and according to modern geologists, has already existed at least 500 million years ago!
When there is no one on planet Earth intelligent life there was almost none!
And here we also have a rhetorical question:
And what happened on planet Earth 600-500 million years ago when the construction of the Guel-Er-Richat quarry began?
At this time (800 - 500 million years ago), no less catastrophic processes took place on Earth, and about 700 million years ago our planet completely froze.
A kilometer-long layer of ice covered the oceans, and the frost reached -50 degrees.
In liquid form, water in the seas could only exist thanks to the heat emanating from the depths of the Earth.
What caused such dramatic events?
About 800 million years ago, the then existing supercontinent [Pangaea] broke apart.
The territories that were previously located in its center, that is, very far from coastline, are now close to the oceans.
Rains became much more frequent here, washing carbon dioxide into the seas, which is involved in the process of rock weathering (during the weathering of rocks containing aluminosilicates, this gas is converted into bicarbonate, which, along with water, enters the oceans; there, as a result of subsequent chemical reactions it forms carbon dioxide compounds that remain on the bottom in the form of sediments).
Meanwhile, CO2 is one of the most important greenhouse gases, which trap heat emitted by the Earth.
When CO2 decreased from the atmosphere, snow and ice cover began to grow in the region of the poles. It perfectly reflects the sun's rays, so the more ice there was, the colder it became, and the lower the temperature dropped, the faster the ice caps grew. A self-powered mechanism arose that increasingly cooled the Earth.
The ice covered more and more territories until it eventually bound the entire Earth. The earth has turned into a snowball rushing through outer space. All the primitive life of that time - and in those days the most complex organisms there were algae and unicellular organisms - they practically disappeared.” (Jan Suchocki, Polityka, Poland. February 2, 2006).
The warm Cambrian was followed by cooling, especially in Southern Hemisphere. In North-West Africa, signs of glaciation that occurred there approximately 450 million years ago are still preserved.
This snow cap of the end of the Ordovician and the beginning of the Silurian covered the space from the modern borders of Morocco to Chad - almost to the middle of the continent. The cooling was perhaps slight, but apparently affected the entire planet, since glaciers appeared not in the high mountains, but on the plain.
It was replaced by a drought at the beginning of the Devonian period, perhaps the most monumental in the history of the Earth.
And the mid-Devonian and the beginning of the subsequent Carboniferous again, especially in the Northern Hemisphere, were marked by more humid conditions. tropical climate. However, not for long. By the end of the Carboniferous (300 million years ago), cooling covered almost the entire planet.
This was one of the largest glaciations... A powerful ice sheet occupied a huge space - up to 45° paleolatitude...
After another jump - after warming in the Jurassic, Cretaceous and partly in the Paleogene (190-60 million years ago) - cooling came again, manifested in a series of relatively recent glacial advances.
This is what planet Earth might have looked like back then!
And as the dear reader can see for himself, what a historic time in the history of planet Earth! It was creepy for us people!
And we are still fighting, according to the Kyoto Protocol, with CO2 gas emissions into the atmosphere of the planet! Is this the path to a new launch, powering itself into action of a mechanism that has increasingly cooled the Earth?
But let's not be distracted by minor points and return to the main stream of the story.
Moreover, we have to answer the question:
If neither God (in the Christian understanding of this philosophical concept) and not even the most ancient people, then who so urgently needed the mineral resources that were available on planet Earth so that he could decide in the extremely unfavorable climatic conditions of the Ice Age (frost down to minus 50!) to build a huge quarry?
And there can be only one answer to this question!
This was done by representatives of a technically highly developed alien civilization unknown to us!
After all, it was necessary to make a space flight to planet Earth. Then conduct exploration of its geological structure, find the mineral or other mineral needed by the alien civilization, and return to their home planet!
Then it was necessary to equip long time a special expedition to planet Earth main task which would be the extraction of this most useful resource, and its transportation to its home planet!
The only alien civilization known to your author whose representatives were on planet Earth are the NIBIRUANS.
But if you believe ancient Sumerian history, they appeared on planet Earth after the end of the last ice age, that is, about 10,000 years ago?
But if any of the readers have other data, then I propose to share this information in the comments to this work. I will take this into account when finalizing the material.
And in connection with the above question, we have a new important question:
What kind of mineral could a representative of an alien civilization have mined in the Guel-Er-Richat quarry?
And the correct answer to this question will perhaps tell us who was mining in this quarry?
And among the working assumptions, again based on observations and comparisons current state mining, then such materials that interested an alien civilization could be: gold or diamonds.
This is exactly how people themselves on planet Earth extract them for their needs.
I personally am of the opinion that diamonds were mined there!
Just one small example. The Mir quarry, located in the city of Mirny, Eastern Siberia, Russia is a huge hole left after former here once a diamond quarry. The quarry is now closed. Its depth reaches 525 meters (this is the fourth deepest quarry in the world), and its diameter is 1,200 meters.
It is the second largest excavated pit in the world, after the Bingham Canyon Mine.
The airspace above the quarry is closed to helicopters due to incidents in which they were sucked down by downdraft air.
The Mir quarry was the first and largest diamond mine in the Soviet Union. Its development lasted 44 years until the quarry was finally closed in June 2001.
And to understand how diamonds are mined, you need to know how they are born.
“A kimberlite pipe is a vertical or close to vertical geological body formed when gases break through the earth’s crust. The kimberlite pipe is filled with kimberlite.
Geological structure and accompanying rocks are named after the city of Kimberley in South Africa.
Basic information
They represent a tube for the propagation of an explosion during a volcanic eruption. They have the shape of a pipe-shaped channel with a diameter of 0.4-1 km, through which a breakthrough of magmatic solutions and gases occurred mainly on ancient platforms.
In the explosion tube, volcanic fragments (breccias) cemented by solutions, or tuff-like rock of a greenish-gray color - kimberlite, which consists of olivine, phlogopite, pyrope, carbonates and other minerals, and also has inclusions of xenoliths, froze.
These pipes (up to 10%) contain diamonds, which are mined in South Africa, India, and since 1954 on the Central Siberian Platform - in Yakutia. The first Yakut kimberlite pipe, discovered by Larisa Popugaeva on August 21, 1954, was named “Zarnitsa”.
A kimberlite pipe is a gigantic pillar that ends at the top with a conical extension. With depth, the conical body narrows, resembling a giant carrot in shape, and at some depth it turns into a vein.
Kimberlite pipes are unique ancient volcanoes, the ground part of which is to a large extent destroyed as a result of erosion processes. Currently, over 1,500 kimberlite bodies are known, of which 8-10% are diamond-bearing rocks. According to experts, about 90% of diamond reserves from primary sources are concentrated in kimberlite pipes, and about 10% in lamproite pipes.
Well, one more piece of information about the “Mirny” quarry! History and today!
“In Yakutia, near the city of Mirny, there is the largest diamond quarry in the world by total volume - the Mir kimberlite pipe (the city of Mirny appeared after the discovery of the pipe and was named in its honor). The quarry has a depth of 525 meters and a diameter of 1.2 kilometers.
The formation of a kimberlite pipe occurs during a volcanic eruption, when gases from the bowels of the earth burst out through the earth's crust.
The shape of such a tube resembles a funnel or glass. A volcanic explosion removes kimberlite from the bowels of the Earth, a rock that sometimes contains diamonds. The breed is named after the town of Kimberley in South Africa, where an 85-carat (16.7 gram) diamond was found in 1871, sparking the Diamond Rush.
On June 13, 1955, geologists searching for a kimberlite pipe in Yakutia saw a tall larch tree whose roots had been exposed by a landslide. The fox dug a deep hole under it. Based on the characteristic bluish color of the soil scattered by the fox, geologists realized that it was kimberlite. A coded radiogram was immediately sent to Moscow: “We lit the peace pipe, the tobacco is excellent.”
Soon after 2800 km. off-road, convoys of vehicles flocked to the site of the discovery of the kimberlite pipe. The working village of Mirny grew up around the diamond deposit; now it is a city with a population of 36 thousand people.
The development of the field took place in extremely difficult climatic conditions. To break through the permafrost, it had to be blown up with dynamite. In the 1960s, 2 kg were already produced here. diamonds per year, of which 20% were of jewelry quality and, after cutting and turning into diamonds, could be supplied to a jewelry salon.
The remaining 80% of diamonds were used for industrial purposes. The South African company De Beers was concerned about the rapid development of Mir, which was forced to buy Soviet diamonds in order to control prices on the world market. The management of De Beers agreed on the arrival of its delegation in Mirny.
The leadership of the USSR agreed to this on the condition that Soviet specialists would visit diamond quarries in South Africa. A De Beers delegation arrived in Moscow in 1976 to fly to Mirny, but the South African guests were deliberately delayed by endless meetings and banquets in Moscow, so when the delegation finally reached Mirny, they had only 20 minutes to inspect the quarry.
However, South African experts were still amazed by what they saw, for example, by the fact that the Russians did not use water when processing ore.
Although this is understandable: after all, 7 months a year in Mirny there is sub-zero temperature and therefore the use of water is simply impossible.
Between 1957 and 2001, the Mir quarry produced $17 billion worth of diamonds. Over the years, the quarry expanded so much that trucks had to travel 8 km along a spiral road. from bottom to surface.
Owner of the Mir quarry Russian company ALROSA stopped open-pit ore mining in 2001 because... this method has become dangerous and ineffective. Scientists have found that diamonds lie at a depth of more than 1 km, and at such a depth it is not a quarry that is suitable for mining, but an underground mine, which, according to the plan, will reach its design capacity of one million tons of ore per year already in 2012.
In total, the development of the field is planned for another 34 years.
Helicopters are strictly prohibited from flying over the quarry, because a huge funnel sucks aircraft into itself.
The high walls of the quarry are fraught with danger not only for helicopters: there is a threat of landslides, and one day the quarry may swallow the surrounding, including built-up, areas.
Scientists are thinking about a project for an eco-city in a now empty huge pit. The head of the Moscow architectural bureau Nikolai Lyutomsky talks about his plans:
"main part project - a huge concrete structure that will become a kind of “plug” for former quarry and will burst it from the inside. The pit will be covered on top with a translucent dome on which solar panels will be installed.
The climate in Yakutia is harsh, but there is a lot clear days and the batteries will be able to generate about 200 MW of electricity, which should more than meet the needs of the future city. In addition, you can use the heat of the Earth.
In winter in Mirny the air cools to –60°C, but at a depth below 150 meters (that is, below permafrost) the ground temperature is positive, which adds energy efficiency to the project. The space of the city is proposed to be divided into three tiers: the lower one - for growing agricultural products (the so-called vertical farm), the middle one - a forest park zone that purifies the air, and the upper one for the permanent residence of people, which has a residential function and serves to house administrative and sociocultural buildings and structures. total area cities will be 3 million. square meters, and up to 10,000 people - tourists, can live here, service personnel and farm workers."
To understand this you need to at least just look at the photos of modern diamond and gold mining quarries.
But this was another lyrical digression, and continuing the topic of diamond mining, it should also be noted that diamonds are not evenly distributed on our planet.
In the African Sahara region, India, the countries of the Far East, the Arctic Circle and Australia, the largest accumulation of diamonds is observed.
What is known about diamond mining in modern Mauritania?
And there are diamonds for industrial mining, and besides diamonds there is another important mineral that could be of interest as an object of extraction; I mention above an unknown alien civilization!
It's Iron!
But let's take things in order. Here's the information you need.
MINING INDUSTRY OF MYRITANIAN
general characteristics
“Mining accounts for about 13% of Mauritania's Gross Domestic Product and is considered the most important source of employment in the country, closely followed by State bodies(provides jobs for 5% of the active population);.
Mineral exports account for about 60% of Mauritania's exports.
The main wealth of Mauritania is iron, which almost entirely provides exports in this industry.
Iron reserves in Mauritania are estimated at 6,000 million tons and are considered the largest in the world;
Mauritania is also the first iron producer in the world;; its annual production, which ranges between 10,400 and 11,700 tons, is almost entirely exported. The only enterprise that develops these resources is the National Society of Industry and Mining (NOPD), the main industrial enterprise countries (Table IV.2).
This enterprise is 78% controlled by the State.
Besides iron, according to experts, Mauritania also has untapped natural resources such as gold, diamonds, copper, cobalt, sulfur, gypsum, uranium, aluminum and phosphates.
In 1998, a Mauritanian company received a license for the first time to develop phosphates in cooperation with foreign companies. Oil production began.
The mining sector is believed to offer enormous opportunities to the Mauritanian economy and foreign companies, especially those that provide the mining industry with the necessary equipment. Several years ago, active development of deposits of oil, gold, and diamonds, led mainly by foreign companies, began to develop intensively in Mauritania.
Foreign organizations specializing mainly in oil, gold and diamonds. In 1999 and 2000, the Government of Mauritania signed and renewed some research contracts with some foreign companies.
All of these companies have confirmed the presence of gold, diamond, phosphate, and copper resources. In 1999, the Rex Diamond Mring Corporation discovered the first "commercially viable" diamond and gold deposits in northern Mauritania."
Perhaps the exact answer to the question “What was mined in the Güell-Er-Richat quarry could be suggested by these fragments of blue stones scattered throughout the quarry, but for some reason they have not yet been studied by any scientists?
But blue rock is the first working sign for a geologist that there are diamond deposits here!
But be that as it may, all the quarries currently existing on planet Earth for the extraction of gold, diamonds, or even iron (iron ore), they are all essentially just smaller and poor copies of the Guel-Er-Rishat quarry!
Photos of iron ore quarries in Krivoy Rog (Ukraine)
Well, people have not yet reached the level of technical development that was already possessed by representatives of an alien civilization unknown to us, who apparently began to be the first to colonize the icy planet Earth.
In the western part of the Sahara Desert - the one that belongs to Mauritania - slightly east of the village of Ouadan there is one of the most amazing and mysterious places on the planet, known as the “Richat structure” or “eye of the Earth”. Mysterious circles, drawn by an unknown force among the monotonous desert landscape, attract an inexhaustible stream of inquisitive travelers.
The age of the geological formation is more than respectable: researchers of the unique object claim that the oldest ring from a series of circles of the Guell-Er-Richat structure is not “younger” than 600,000,000 years. And the size of the “eye” is substantial: the diameter of its outer contour is about 50 km. It is clear that with such an impressive scale, the contours of the rings can only be detected at a significant height from the object.
That is why the unique structure was discovered only with the advent of the space age in 1965. Since then, the eye of the planet has served as a clear guide to astronauts in orbit, and scientists have been puzzling over the nature of this marvelous formation day and night.
Versions.
Version one - the place where the meteorite fell. I did not find confirmation, since there is no depression on the surface of the earth in the center of the structure, as in other places where cosmic bodies fall. And there are no traces of impact on the rocks.
Version two - the mouth of an extinct volcano. The Richat structure is made up of dolomite sedimentary rocks, and the complete absence of volcanic rocks and a volcanic dome nullified this assumption.
What is the Richat structure? Version three is fantastic. “This is the landing site of aliens,” some say. “Atlantis was here,” others say. But no one can prove either the first or the second.
Version four is the result of erosion. According to scientists, the platform in this place rose and fell, constantly weathering, which led to such a layered formation. To date, this version is the most plausible.
Thanks to images taken from space, there has been a significant breakthrough in geological research. Scientists, in a relatively short period of time, have been able to identify many interesting objects for researchers. various directions places Among all these discoveries, numerous geological formations in the form of rings are of considerable interest, differing not only in size, varying from several hundred meters to 3 thousand kilometers and in age, sometimes reaching the Archean era, estimated in billions of years, but also in their genesis, which put before researchers have discussed a number of controversial issues.
One of these mysteries for scientists was the amazing Moorish soil formation, clearly visible from space. Because of its large size and clear outlines, which give it the vast and lifeless landscapes of the Saharan desert, it has been serving as a kind of beacon for people navigating the endless ocean of space for half a century.
Cosmonaut Valentin Lebedev, examining this geological object, amazing in its almost round shape and unusual structure, from the window of the Salyut-7 station in October 1982, associated it with a children's pyramid assembled from rings of various colors. You can verify the accuracy of this comparison by looking at the picture below.
True, this miracle of nature is in fact not a children's toy at all. Its diameter outer ring equal to fifty kilometers, and on closer inspection it doesn’t look like a pyramid at all. Being directly at this place and contemplating the rocky desert with a series of different lowlands and hills, you can’t even say that it can look so impressive from space.
Apparently, this circumstance was previously the main factor for researchers that prevented them from focusing their attention on this point of our planet that, as it turned out, was so interesting for its mystery. But, as they say, “everything has its time.” Development by humanity outer space, undoubtedly, was beneficial in the field of knowledge of our home - the Earth.
After all, just think, during his existence, man, due to his curiosity, was able to explore almost every corner of our native planet. He discovered many previously unknown islands, conquered the inaccessible peaks of the highest mountains, found a way to lead research papers in the depths of the ocean, overcame the cold of the earth's poles. It seemed that people had explored everything and there was nothing on Earth that was unknown to humanity. But this, as time shows, was just a short flight of stairs leading to the heights of knowledge.
A photograph of the Moorish “pyramid” taken from space half a century ago seriously puzzled scientists. Even after conducting a series of studies to this day, they have not been able to come to unanimous opinion about the cause of this geological formation. It, based on the conclusions of the researchers, has a rather unusual structure, which at first glance resembles the site of mining operations that were once carried out here, or a huge crater formed after the fall of a meteorite, and possibly the consequences of an ancient volcanic eruption. According to the conclusions of experts, the age of this geological formation, which received the names “eye of the desert” and “navel of the earth” thanks to the media, is 500-600 million years, that is, theoretically reaches the Proterozoic period.
As you know, at the end of this period there was a global change in the climate of our planet. This coincidence naturally became a significant factor that prompted researchers to put forward the version that the ring-shaped structure of Richat was formed as a result of the fall of a huge meteorite.
However, the attempt of geologists to collect evidence for this hypothesis in subsequent studies was unsuccessful. They were never able to find traces indicating the impact itself and its consequences. In the center of this formation there was also no depression corresponding to the force of the impact, similar to depressions at the sites of the fall of cosmic bodies. In addition, they were unable to explain the presence of not one, but several rings, ideally nested within each other. In order for such a formation to occur, several meteorites had to fall into this place with perfect accuracy, which, of course, is unlikely.
Of all the put forward versions, the volcanic version looks the most plausible structural education Richat.
Scientists, analyzing photographs of this geological artifact with seemingly similar objects on Mars, Mercury and the Moon, have put forward a seemingly irrefutable version of its volcanic origin. They even managed to explain the new type of volcanic formations they discovered thanks to these photographs, called “Ring Structures.” This topic first appeared as a special section in the 1985 textbook “General Geotectonics,” written by A. E. Mikhailov and V. E. Khain.
According to this version, the origin of the Moorish ring structures is explained by centuries-old erosion of the volcano, under the influence of which the current geological artifact was formed.
But subsequent studies forced many scientists to reconsider the evidence of this hypothesis. According to the conclusion of many experts in the field of geology, the Richat structure cannot be the result of a volcanic eruption, because its formation is dominated by sedimentary dolomite rocks and there are absolutely no volcanics characterized by microscopic size mineral crystals, and effusives. In addition, in its central part, geologists were unable to detect any signs of a volcanic dome.
By the way, why the eye? Yes, because from a certain distance the complex of giant rings amazingly accurately recreates the shape of the pupil of the human eye, framed by the contours of the eyelids. The initial hypothesis was that the planet's waking eye was nothing more than a crater formed as a result of the fall of a giant meteorite. This version still defends its right to exist among possible reasons the appearance of an ancient geological structure.
But the explanations of the supporters of the “crater” theory regarding the flat shape of the bottom of the ring formation do not sound very convincing, to put it mildly. The Richat formation cannot boast of a characteristic depression or traces of impact.
The essence of another version is that the appearance of a geological artifact is the result of a long-standing volcanic eruption. Upon closer examination, this hypothesis does not stand up to criticism: the product of the eruption should have left a dome-shaped imprint of volcanic rocks in memory of itself, but, alas, this is not the case. It’s a pity: the almost perfectly round shape of the mysterious rings would harmoniously fit into the hypothesis of an extinct volcano. In attempts to explain the reason for the appearance of mystical circles, completely fantastic versions were put forward, including the landing of aliens - it is clear that such ideas were shattered to pieces by elementary common sense.
Supporters of the supernatural, who tried to explain the presence of circles by the presence of otherworldly forces, also faced a fiasco: there are no traces of any anomalies in the area of the structure - shepherds have long lived in the mysterious territory and camels graze peacefully, without showing the slightest signs of concern.
The most plausible and tenacious hypothesis was that the eye of the planet was formed as a result of natural geological processes. First, the earth's crust rose, and then wind and water flows came into play - it was centuries-old erosion that led to the appearance of an all-seeing eye on the face of the planet. But even this theory does not provide a comprehensive explanation of Richat’s strict geometry, so the question of where the regular circles in the middle of the desert came from still remains open. This means that the great discovery of the true origin of the rings of Guell Er Richat awaits us ahead.
In the western part of the Sahara Desert - the one that belongs to Mauritania - slightly east of the village of Ouadan there is one of the most amazing and mysterious places on the planet, known as the “Richat structure” or “Eye of the Sahara”. Mysterious circles, drawn by an unknown force among the monotonous desert landscape, attract an inexhaustible stream of inquisitive travelers.Topographic reconstruction (scale 6:1 according to vertical axis) from satellite photographs. Colors indicate: bedrock - brown, sand - yellow/white, vegetation - green, sediment - blue
The age of the geological formation is more than respectable: researchers of the unique object claim that the oldest ring from a series of circles of the Guell-Er-Richat structure is not “younger” than 600,000,000 years. And the size of the “eye” is substantial: the diameter of its outer contour is about 50 km. It is clear that with such an impressive scale, the contours of the rings can only be detected at a significant height from the object.
Satellite photograph of the Richat structure. Photography is based on the effect of thermal emission and
taken on the ASTER radiometer on October 7, 2000.
That is why the unique structure was discovered only with the advent of the space age. Since then, the eye of the planet has served as a clear guide to astronauts in orbit, and scientists have puzzled over the nature of this marvelous formation.Versions.
Version one is the place where the meteorite fell. I did not find confirmation, since there is no depression on the surface of the earth in the center of the structure, as in other places where cosmic bodies fall. And there are no traces of impact on the rocks.The second version is the crater of an extinct volcano. The Richat structure is made up of dolomite sedimentary rocks, and the complete absence of volcanic rocks and a volcanic dome nullified this assumption.
Version three is fantastic. “This is the landing site of aliens,” some say. “Atlantis was here,” others say. But no one can prove either the first or the second.
Version four is the result of erosion. According to scientists, the platform in this place rose and fell, constantly weathering, which led to such a layered formation. To date, this version is the most plausible.
Thanks to images taken from space, there has been a significant breakthrough in geological research. In a relatively short period of time, scientists have been able to identify many places of interest to researchers from various fields. Among all these discoveries, numerous geological formations in the form of rings are of considerable interest, differing not only in size, varying from several hundred meters to 3 thousand kilometers and in age, sometimes reaching the Archean era, estimated in billions of years, but also in their genesis, which put before researchers have discussed a number of controversial issues.One of these mysteries for scientists was the amazing Moorish soil formation, clearly visible from space. Because of its large size and clear outlines, which give it the vast and lifeless landscapes of the Saharan desert, it has been serving as a kind of beacon for people navigating the endless ocean of space for half a century.
Cosmonaut Valentin Lebedev, examining this geological object, amazing in its almost round shape and unusual structure, from the window of the Salyut-7 station in October 1982, associated it with a children's pyramid assembled from rings of various colors.
The most plausible and tenacious hypothesis was that the eye of the planet was formed as a result of natural geological processes. First, the earth's crust rose, and then wind and water flows came into play - it was centuries-old erosion that led to the appearance of an all-seeing eye on the face of the planet. But even this theory does not provide a comprehensive explanation of Richat’s strict geometry, so the question of where the regular circles in the middle of the desert came from still remains open. This means that the great discovery of the true origin of the rings of Guell Er Richat awaits us ahead.
