MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_996274.jpg
Arial view of a terraced V-shaped valley fill that sits at the edge of a reclaimed West Virginia mining site. Entire mountains are blasted away in mountaintop removal mining in order to obtain a small seam of coal. Unwanted rock is pushed into valleys and streams destroying natural watersheds and the length of the Ohio River has been filled in. The result is a threat to clean water and the biodiversity of the ecosystem.
The Central Appalachian Plateau was created 4 million years ago, and one of its richest assets is wilderness containing some of the world’s oldest and biologically richest temperate zone hardwood forest. A flattened moonscape on top is mostly unusable.
- Copyright
- MELISSA FARLOW
- Image Size
- 1830x1220 / 982.1KB
- Keywords
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aerial view, aerial views, coal, coal industry and production, color image, conservation, day, disasters, environmental conservation, environmental damage, fields, getty, image setting, image type, industry, industry and production, landscapes, no people, north america, number of people, outdoors, photography, reclamation projects, retaining walls, southern states, structures, terraced fields, united states, west virginia
- Contained in galleries
- Mountaintop Removal USA_National Geographic magazine 3/2006
