This week for throwback Thursday (#TBT) we’re looking at gold mining in the Madre de Dios region of Peru. If this sounds familiar, then bonus skytruther points for you because we did in fact write about this region last fall. A recent crackdown on illegal mining inspired us to give this region another look, and show […]
Earlier this year Google launched the Timelapse project, a global interactive map that uses three decades of Landsat imagery to show how our world is changing. One stunning example of human impact on the planet is the rapid buildout of Powder River Basin coal mines in the Thunder Basin National Grassland. In addition to domestic […]
We used to think only big commercial mining operations could have a significant environmental impact. These images gave us a schooling. The cumulative impact from many small, artisanal mining operations can result in just as big a mess as a conventional open-pit mine. As reported in The Guardian and captured on video by the Carnegie […]
Here at SkyTruth, we are always looking for new ways to visualize the environmental impact of human activity, so we’ve been playing with LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) data and digital elevation models (DEMs). We thought it would be interesting, and potentially useful, to create a profile of the terrain of a mine before and […]
Last Friday, I posted a blog about our historical map showing the cumulative impact of mountain top removal coal-mining activity. At John’s request, I have begun using this data set to assess the expansion of observable mountain top removal (MTR) mining footprint since 2005, when the data set was last updated. I’ve used Logan County, […]