the.com/open pit
Mining's answer to subtlety: if it's in the way, dig a bigger hole.
means A surface mining method that removes layers of rock and ore from a huge terraced excavation rather than tunneling underground.
from Straightforward compound English — 'open' (not enclosed, exposed to the sky) plus 'pit' (a hole dug in the ground, from Old English 'pytt', itself borrowed long ago from Latin 'puteus', a well or shaft). The term emerged with industrial-scale mining as a plain, descriptive label distinguishing this method from underground, shaft-based mining — no hidden tunnels, just an ever-widening hole open to daylight.
- scale
- some are visible from space
- depth
- Bingham Canyon drops nearly a kilometer
- economics
- cheaper than tunnels until the walls collapse
- afterlife
- many become lakes once pumps stop