Another day, another catastrophe

[dreamshark]

Now the Tower Soudan underground mine is on fire.  WTF?  Where will it all end?

Grungy iron staircase leading down into the bowels of the crusher facility A random shot from our 2008 Iron Range vacation. The tour of the Tower Soudan mine was a highlight. I sure hope it survives.

Comments

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

I'm glad no one was hurt.

[quadong.livejournal.com]

Don't panic. My informants tell me that all the detectors are fine. Even the network cables going down into the lab are fine. The lab does not appear to be flooded. Etc etc. We don't know everything yet, but it seems like it's not too bad.

(I have no idea how this will affect the historical mine tours, of course. Perhaps those areas are more damaged, since they are not behind a big firewall nor in such a favorable position with respect to the airflow.)

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

Really, the main thing is the elevator and electricity, and those are shared by the lab and the mine tour. You might think that parts of the mine would collapse if the supporting timbers got burned, but you would be wrong. One of the startling thing about this mine is the cavernous size of the mining areas, unmarred by unsightly supporting structures. It turns out that the entire mountain is just one big ball of iron. They just sunk that long shaft and then started hollowing out the iron-bearing rock from the inside. The mining areas look like Union Station. The wooden timbers are mostly to support the elevator.