The Biggest Man Made Excavation – Bingham Canyon Mine Landslide

The accident of 2013 which occurred at Bingham Canyon Mine in Utah literally made the earth shake!

skytruth.org

Going back to 2013, April the 10th US, Bingham Canyon Mine  - a huge earth shake caused 70 million cubic meters of debris scatter down the mine gaining the speed of 100 miles per hour. The motion was so gigantic, that literally made earth to shake which showed up on the seismic sensor the number 2.5 in Richter scale. Just to make it more simple, the land was sliding so much, that it felt like a 2.5 earthquake!

marketoracle.co.uk

The history of modern USA recorded the largest landslide of non volcanic nature and later on it turned into the biggest man made excavation known in the world.
Bingham Canyon has been a major producer of copper since 1906. But the mining activity which was lasting over a century couldn't pass without any consequences and finally resulted in a colossal crater, which is around 970 meter deep and 4 km wide.  The scene is so tremendous that in 1966 it has become a National Historic Landmark.

upr.org

But the mine didn't stop to slide and slowly became deeper and wider making engineers question the stability of the slopes. So the decision was made to put the latest technologies to monitor the  mine and see the changes it is undergoing.
One more fascinating fact about the mine is that it has become the first landslide that could cause real earthquakes.  Bingham Canyon has turned on not one, but 16 of smaller earthquakes around, while usually it is all the way around: supposed to be the earthquake could cause the landslide.

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Luckily there was nobody inside, except the equipment when the accident took place, living this place a totally mystery and one of the USA landmarks.
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