A military installation being constructed in the Middle East and an iceberg about to crash into an island are just two examples of the startling sights that may be viewed from space.
After a disastrous diamond mining accident in 2022 that resulted in chemicals leaking into the South African countryside, scientists discovered a potentially dangerous "golden river" of waste that could be seen from orbit.
The tailings caused widespread damage, including the loss of hundreds of sheep, the destruction of dozens of homes, damage to cell phone towers, road closures, and temporary contamination of drinking water, according to NASA's Earth Observatory. The tailings swept through the town's outskirts and into the surrounding countryside.
The part of the dam's southern wall that fell is shown in the picture. Unexpectedly, a dam at a diamond mine in the town in central South Africa broke, releasing a flood of tailings, or mining waste.
The tailings then poured into the adjacent Prosesspruit river after crashing down the mountainside in a huge, one-mile-wide tsunami that eventually poured into the nearby Wolwas Dam.
The Earth Observatory estimated that portions of the Prosesspruit river appear to have broadened, suggesting that the waste may have damaged the river's banks. The dry tailings covered about 10 square miles of cropland overall.
In addition to other substances like petroleum, sulfuric acid, and cyanide, tailings—a muddy mixture of dust, crushed rock, water, and other mining leftovers—frequently contain trace amounts of metals including copper, mercury, cadmium, and zinc. From above, this blend gives it a golden aspect.
Two of the eight largest diamonds in the world, the Excelsior Diamond and the Reitz Diamond, also called the Golden Jubilee Diamond, were extracted from the Jagersfontein diamond mine, which was formerly the deepest hand-excavated pit in the world.
However, due to flooding damage, the mine has been shuttered, and it is still unclear if or when it will reopen.