Close your eyes and picture Montana. What do you see? Snow-capped
peaks? Sprawling green valleys? Untamed wildlife? What about a 1,780
foot-deep pit filled with more than 40-billion-gallons of rusty-hued
toxic water?
If the latter option strikes you as odd, then
you've never visited Butte, Mont. proud home to 34,000 people and the
Berkeley Pit — one of the most toxic places on Earth.
For just $2
you can mosey your way up to an observation deck and take in the scene:
Crooked terraces crudely etched into the face of the Earth spiral down
the rim of the expanse for more than a mile in all directions, gradually
sloping into a stagnant pool of water with a sheen the color of a fine
cabernet.
The water gains its distinctive hue from the high concentration of
chemicals and minerals lurking below. Manganese and iron team up to form
the deep red hue at the surface, but plunge further into the depths and
the surge in arsenic, aluminum, cadmium and zinc might make the water
seem downright chameleonic; at deeper points in the pit's lake the water
gradually shifts to a color akin to that of Mountain Dew, Slate reports.
No
one fishes at Berkeley Pit because no fish can survive there. No birds
scoot along the water's edge, no vegetation sprouts in, or around, the
pit. In 1995, a flock of 342 snow geese decided to roost in the pit's
lake for the night. By sunrise they were all dead, their insides charred
from the corrosive water, according to Atlas Obscura.
http://www.weather.com/news/science/environment/berkeley-pit-montana-toxic-20130920
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