Comments on: Gigantic hole

Gigantic hole

Burhanistan — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 20:03:42 -0800

The giant spiraling hole in the ground near Mirny, Russia in Siberia is perhaps the world's largest open pit diamond mine. More giant holes.

By: GavinR

GavinR — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 20:05:24 -0800

Hey, I think I know that big truck....

By: newfers

newfers — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 20:08:08 -0800

Oh no, not more crotch shots of Britney Spears!

By: Ambrosia Voyeur

Ambrosia Voyeur — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 20:09:20 -0800

Wow, somehow terrifying. The spiraling shape will make you go insane!

By: wfrgms

wfrgms — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 20:10:55 -0800

MetaFilter: a giant spiraling hole

By: wfrgms

wfrgms — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 20:11:12 -0800

great post btw

By: Rhomboid

Rhomboid — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 20:14:24 -0800

So this giant 525 meter deep hole is an exhausted mine that has no use any more. How nice of them to leave such a present to the people in that town.

By: metasonix

metasonix — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 20:30:37 -0800

Kewl! Thanks! I like to look at pictures of big holes....

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 20:47:17 -0800

That there's one big ol' gaht-damn hole, I'm a-tellin' yew!

By: Count

Count — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 20:47:45 -0800

The town probably wouldn't have existed without the hole

By: a bad enough dude

a bad enough dude — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 20:49:44 -0800

All I can think of when I look at those pictures is that the earth must be pissed.

By: Dukebloo

Dukebloo — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 21:15:27 -0800

Victims of the almighty Sarlacc: His Excellency hopes that you will die honorably. But should any of you wish to beg for mercy, the great Jabba the Hutt will now listen to your pleas.

By: cubby

cubby — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 21:17:49 -0800

As a Texan, my initial reaction to the hole was, of course, "well, it's pretty big, I guess. But not giant." From a comment in the last link: "Russians are very much like Texans, they are very proud of bigness."

By: sourwookie

sourwookie — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 21:22:40 -0800

I can't believe mined diamonds are worth that much more than synthetic.

By: longsleeves

longsleeves — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 21:22:48 -0800

Extremely annoying constant rapid dissolve wipes of the photos on main page while trying to read text. Site needs to calm down and trust its content.

By: billder

billder — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 21:41:59 -0800

How many frisbees and soccer balls are down there?

By: ColdChef

ColdChef — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 21:47:33 -0800

My football coach says that I don't know the difference between my ass and this.

By: logicpunk

logicpunk — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 21:56:37 -0800

My football coach says that I don't know the difference between my ass and this. Is this the part where someone mentions goatse?

By: longsleeves

longsleeves — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 22:00:26 -0800

Why not fill it in with all the earth that was taken out? Minus the pretty little rocks, of course. Or make a missle silo.

By: ColdChef

ColdChef — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 22:01:16 -0800

Or a jello mold for the world's largest Devo hat?

By: washburn

washburn — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 22:02:31 -0800

What a perfect asteroid-catcher!

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 22:09:42 -0800

I wonder how long it took to make that hole. Given the size differential between the current hole and the extremely large Tonka truck in picture 2, my seat-of-the-pants guess is: awhile.

By: Chuckles

Chuckles — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 22:12:41 -0800

OMG! It's the PITT!

By: miss lynnster

miss lynnster — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 22:12:46 -0800

Too bad they didn't get a picture of the giant sandworms that live in that thing...

By: Chuckles

Chuckles — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 22:14:10 -0800

C_D, if I remember right, it had something to do with Starbrand and a dumbbell, and it was almost instantaneous.

By: PenDevil

PenDevil — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 22:14:45 -0800

Kinda reminds me of the 'moholes' from Red Dune. Only smaller.

By: PenDevil

PenDevil — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 22:18:21 -0800

Er... Red Mars that is...

By: Rhomboid

Rhomboid — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 22:18:29 -0800

According to some googling, it opened in 1957 and was decommissioned in 2004.

By: billder

billder — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 22:22:44 -0800

Evel Knievel should jump this. It would be the perfect cap to his career. From his official biography... ... he went on to win the Northern Rocky Mountain Ski Association Class A Men's ski jumping championship in 1957... He then formed the Butte Bombers semiprofessional hockey team, acting as owner, manager, coach and player. He worked in the copper mines as a contract miner, skip tender and diamond drill operator. After a stint in the US Army where he pole vaulted and ran the 220 on the Army track team, he ran his own hunting guide service in Montana...

By: ztdavis

ztdavis — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 22:41:11 -0800

Great post.

By: wtfchuck

wtfchuck — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 22:48:28 -0800

Fuck it, instant landfill.

By: miss lynnster

miss lynnster — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 22:55:08 -0800

Actually... do you think we could throw Britney Spears & Lindsay Lohan in there?

By: loquacious

loquacious — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 23:15:29 -0800

Actually... do you think we could throw Britney Spears & Lindsay Lohan in there? Well, we could. But since that pit is so deep and unline and penetrates the deep aquifers in the area, that site is neither suited for or properly prepared for toxic waste. Bang. Two dead fish in a barrel.

By: loquacious

loquacious — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 23:15:45 -0800

By: grapefruitmoon

grapefruitmoon — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 00:08:46 -0800

Holy cow, that's a big hole. It's somehow both awe-inspiring and terrifying. I'm going to go... to the kitchen... where there are no big holes... I think... If a diamond mine opened up in my kitchen, I'm gonna be pissed.

By: Sukiari

Sukiari — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 01:30:52 -0800

"So this giant 525 meter deep hole is an exhausted mine that has no use any more. How nice of them to leave such a present to the people in that town." Filled up with water, it should provide quite a lot of entertainment and cold water fishing opportunities. It's not just a hole, it's a fun zone that isn't being used yet!

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 03:57:55 -0800

Pretty good idea, Sukiari! And since it's in Siberia, they could whip out the snow machines in the fall and have a fucking RAD snowboarding bowl for three-quarters of the year!

By: DU

DU — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 04:13:03 -0800

That's the only spot where there were diamonds? What if they dug another hole next to it?

By: pax digita

pax digita — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 04:21:33 -0800

I'd like to see a really big nuke fired in the bottom of this thing, where the blast gets reflected mostly straight upward. But from a good ways off, of course.

By: owenkun

owenkun — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 04:37:49 -0800

"With a beautiful highschool girl as its protagonist, the story [Uzumaki] concerns the people of a small town in Japan, who become variously fascinated with, terrified of, and consumed by the countless occurrences of natural and artificial spirals." - Junji Ito's 'Uzumaki'

By: Foosnark

Foosnark — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 06:48:32 -0800

Oh no, not more crotch shots of Britney Spears! Nah, she's more of a borehole.

By: dios

dios — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 07:55:55 -0800

This pleases me. Thanks.

By: zoogleplex

zoogleplex — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 12:53:00 -0800

You can zoom pretty far in to this one, and see the tiny power shovels that are digging out the ore, and the tiny trucks that bring it up from the mine. Of course, that tiny power shovel is one of these, which as you can see by the pickup truck in the photo is about 80 feet high and 150 feet long, the size of a good-sized apartment building. Them be some mighty large mines, dere.

By: stargell

stargell — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 17:38:53 -0800

That's the only spot where there were diamonds? What if they dug another hole next to it? Kimberlite , the rock that forms diamonds, originates in the earth's mantle and is pushed to the crust via narrow volcanic "pipes." With the right pressure and temperature, diamonds form within the kimberlite as it is being pushed up. The surface mines are basically excavating these pipes, which range in diameter from from a few hundred meters to about a kilometer, from the top down. Kimberlite is named after the town of Kimberley, South Africa, where the first deposits were found. Also, the de Beers brothers who lent their name to the giant diamond conglomerate were farmers who found diamonds on their land in South Africa. They sold the the property and the mining rights for 6,000 pounds. I learned all his today watching the Discovery Channel.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 20:47:03 -0800

The Iranian President is not in that league. Just look at him. He's got no cult of personality going for him. Nada. He's like Dan Quayle. Yeah, I bet he spells it "potatoes", too.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 20:48:20 -0800

Obviously, the above comment was meant for another thread. Move along. Nothing to see here.

By: BlackLeotardFront

BlackLeotardFront — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 21:14:59 -0800

A giant hole post and no one has yet mentioned your mom? I'm disappointed, Metafilter. Perhaps I expect too much from you.

By: HyperBlue

HyperBlue — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 00:00:02 -0800

[this is the part where someone mentions goatse]

By: Dillonlikescookies

Dillonlikescookies — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 02:52:08 -0800

we have an open cast coal mine in the north island of new zealand, not far from a residential area. It's slowly being filled with water, and later fish will be added, for an insanely deep man made lake. Make a nice gift for those who have put up with an open cast mine next door for years!