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SHAPING THE SKIN OF THE EARTH
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INGRID AAS
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A SCARED LANDSCAPE «Scars are areas of fibrous tissue that replace normal skin after injury. A scar results from the biological process of wound repair in the skin and other tissues of the body. Thus, scarring is a natural part of the healing process. With the exception of very minor lesions, every wound results in some degree of scarring.» Due to the human body, landscape is a complex system, that can be scared. The mining landscapes are left as scars after periods of mining. The mining companies makes their cut in the skin of the earth, and the landscape starts to bleed. An active mine is an open wound. After the mining period the landscape is left as a wound that is starting to heal.
In geographical terms- what is a scar?
Scars in the landscape can also be caused by nature itself. Erosion is the process by which materials are removed from the surface and transported to another location. It works by hydraulic or aeolian actions and transport of solids (sediment, soil, rock and other particles) in the natural environment, and leads to the deposition of these materials elsewhere. It usually occurs due to transport by wind, water, or ice; by down-slope creep of soil and other material under the force of gravity. Water enters the cracks, and if it freezes, expands. As the water expands, so do the cracks. A cliff on the side of a mountain, is an example of a scar created by nature itself. The biggest difference due to the human made scars is that they is created over a longer period of time. Then the ecosystem can develope in the same rate. Grand Canyon is one of the biggest examples of a nature made scar. Nearly two billion years of the Earth’s geological history was exposed to the Colorado River and its tributaries cut their channels through layer after layer of rock while the Colorado Plateau was uplifted. Since that time, the Colorado River continued to erode and form the canyon to its present-day configuration. What the natural and manmade scars have in common is that they stay in the landscape over time. People have become significant earth movers, outpacing all sources of natural erosion. Should it not be our task to help the nature to get back to its equilibrium? And should we not have any roles for this kind of eath shaping?
“THE GLOBAL LANDART PROJECT� The perforated global landscape People have become significant mass movers, reshaping the the skin of the earth. When we look at the amount of scars and masses in motion, we can see a global landscape in change. In one way the landscape could be seen as one big sculptural project,
forming the skin of the earth.
NEW SCANNINGS CHANGING THE MAP
CHANGING THE MAP In contrast to the carefully negotiation of land uses and rights to resources, new scanns are now forming the high north. New technology, geophysical measurements, is changing the map and the landscape is seen as geological resources underneath the surface. Ore is mined out along the linear beds on the hillsides. The open cuts is running in the same direction as the geologic patterns. Scars and derelict quarries remain today as evidence of exhaustion, both of human bodies and of geologic seams. Linear roads are traceble in the bottom of the valley. Sometimes the roads are following the gap cuts in the ridge lines that is created by rivers.
“Like a scann of a body�
DESIGNED LANDSCAPE Deformation of the ground, testing the rules of gravity. How deep can you dig a hole? 1
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Steep angle takes up less land and requires less topsoil. Dozer gouges cover the hillside to slow erosion and capture
EARTH IS CUT, DUMPED, SHAPED DURING MINING PROCESS. TESTING LIMITS OF GRAVITY AND EROSION
SELF SHAPING EARTH
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CRACKING AND MOOVING SURFACE
LAKES IS DRAINING, GOING INTO THE GROUND
The mining process is gradually transforming the landscape. Turning the ground under the surface has set its mark on the landscape. The landscape is reacting to the deformation of the masses and whats going on underneath the surface. The ground has become unstable and there will be dramatic consequenses if no one takes action. The ground have been overextracted so the ground is no longer stabil. As a part of a moving landscape the city of Kiruna is now sinking and lakes is about to drain. What will happen to the ground in 50 years?
ANTHROPOCENE The mineral law- Do we have legislations for these landscape interventions (size and form)? Do we have suitable rules/politics for this reshapSome geologists now believe that human activity has so irrevocably altered our planet ing of landscape? Anthropocene: Have humans created a new epoch of geological time?
that we have entered a new geological age. This proposed new epoch is dubbed “the Anthropocene”. Yet some experts say that defining this “human age” is much more than about understanding our place in history. Instead, our whole future may depend on it. Humans have made a dramatic impact on the skin of the earth. We are living in some other age, one shaped primarily by people. From their trawlers scraping the floors of the seas to their dams impounding sediment by the gigatonne, from their stripping of forests to their irrigation of farms, from their mile-deep mines to their melting of glaciers, humans were bringing about an age of planetary change. The human made landscape is reaching a scale due to the geological natural made landscape.
MIR MINE RUSSIA 525 M DEEP EMPIRE STATE BUILDING 381 M
HOW DEEP AND BIG CAN YOU DIG HOLE? WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO THE HIGH NORH?
1,3 KM
Kap.8- § 43. Konsesjonspliktige uttak (operating licenses) “Samlet uttak av mineralforekomster på mer enn 10 000 m3 masse krever driftskonsesjon fra Direktoratet for mineralforvaltning.... Driftsområdet skal fastsettes i konsesjonen....Konsesjonen kan tidsbegrenses” (“The total extraction of mineral deposits of more than 10 000 m3 of mass requires operating license from the Directorate of Mining .... The operating area shall be determined in the license .... the license can have time limitations”)
Kap.6- § 31. Utvinningsområdet (production area) “Departementet kan gi forskrift om utvinningsområdet, herunder om form, størrelse og merking” (“The Ministry may issue regulations concerning the recovery area, including the form,size and labeling”) These are the only restrictions in the Mineral Act that is saying anything about the shape and size related to the KIRKENES 2,3 KM mining operation. As long as you have license to extract more than 10 000 m3 off mass, the mineral act says nothing about the maximum mass extraction. In principel this means that you then can
dig a hole as deep as you want,
as long as it is mineral discovery in the ground!
The mineral law today does not ensure what happens within the approved operation area. The
purpose of the Act is to promote and ensure a responsible management and use of mineral resources. When expanding the territories in the north, Norway with its mineral act, should be in control of the big cuts and mass moovement on the landscape.
MASSES ON THE MOOVE Prepairing the mineral strategy for exploration of the north; Questioning the mineral law?
What to do with the waste?
2,8 mill ton konsentrat pr 책r
Mine reclamation is the process of restoring and healing the scars and erase the signs from the mining operation. Although the process of mine reclamation occurs once mining is completed, the preparation and planning of mine reclamation activities should occur prior to a mine being permitted or started. Mine reclamation minimizes the environmental effects of mining and creates useful landscapes that meet a variety of goals ranging from the restoration of productive ecosystems to the creation of industrial and municipal resources. To heal the scars is not easy but someone got to do it. The mineral act have a weakness when it comes to the securing the landscape and the environment. Norway is one of the few contries that are not allowed to deposit the waste back into the mine. The reason for this is to secure the possible remaining ore in the ground. Is this a suitable strategy? In my opinion the mining companies should be seen as visitors in these landscapes with clear restrictions that tells how long they can do the mining operation. There should also be strong restrictions and plans for how the mining companies is responsable for healing the wounds in the landscape. If the scars are beeing left to heal themselves, it will take hundreds of years, and the environmental effects could be huger than emagined. The up tempo revolution of mining, with its scars and deformation of masses, will need a little help. The noth of norway will sooner or later having thousends of square miles of abandoned mines and dug-up holes in the ground that will need attention for reclaimation.
FOR EVERY TONNE OF COPPER EXTRACTED 99 TONNES OF WASTE MATERIAL MUST ALSO BE REMOVED!
2,8 mill ton konsentrat pr 책r
About 97% of the ore is crushed to less than 0.1 mm size and must be deposited, while the remaining about 3% is a copper-containing Sydvaranger iron mine, Norway concentrate which is distributed to smelters abroad for further processing. 45.000 tons of material are removed from the mine daily
FOR EVERY TONNE OF COPPER EXTRACTED 99 TONNES OF WASTE MATERIAL MUST ALSO BE REMOVED! About 97% of the ore is crushed to less than 0.1 mm size and must be deposited, while the remaining about 3% is a copper-containing concentrate which is distributed to smelters abroad for further processing.
450,000 tons of material are removed from the mine daily.
Toquepala copper mine, Peru
Sources 1. Mineralloven: LOV 2009-06-19 nr 101: Lov om erverv og utvinning av mineralressurser 2. Alan Berger, Reclaiming the American West, Princeton Architectural Press, 2002 3. Lecture by Lina Persson: Anthropocene 4. Picture source: Hanne Johnsrud & Mathilde Grellier (p. 4/7) 5. From sight matters, Groundwork, Robin Dripps, p 84-88 6. www.safewater.org/PDFS/resourcesknowthefacts/Mining+and+Wate+Pollution.pdf 7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropocene 8. http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/10/gallery_mines/all/1 9. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scar