Mirny Diamond Mine: Mysterious Hole in Siberia that Can Sucks Anything Flying over it
Every small town has its big secrets. Mirny, a small town located in the Sakha Republic of Russia, discovered the diamond mine was one of its brightest times. The town of mirny was unremarkable till they found they a giant hole in the middle of the town, about 1722 feet deep, that apparently produced enough diamonds to last for a millennium. However, its most interesting feature wasn’t the diamonds, but the fact that it could suck anything that flew over it.
Soviet's hunt for Diamonds:
It all began with the Soviet’s hunt for diamonds in Siberia. In 1955, the Amakinsky expedition was carried out, where a large team of Soviet geologists searched the entire country in hopes of finding a chemical that would indicate the existence of diamonds in their country.
Their efforts were not wasted when they literally stuck diamonds. Three geologists, Yuri Khabardin, Ekaterina Elagina and Viktor Avdeenko who led the expedition, located kimberlite, a chemical usually found near diamonds. After the discovery, Stalin ordered the Mirny Diamond Mine to be built. However, the construction of the mine faced several problems. For seven months, the whole of Siberia was covered in Ice which was difficult to breakthrough. When the ice melted during the remaining 5 months, the workers found it difficult to build anything on it, since the permafrost turned to slush. Unfortunately, the temperature below 40 degrees was enough to shatter car tires and make oil freeze. This made mining very difficult. Yet the soviet continued to build the mine. They used jet engines to melt the ice, they covered their machinery and equipment to protect them from being frozen. They even used dynamites to break the layer of permafrost to successfully build their mine.
After its construction, the mine proved to be quite successful. It produced around 10 million carats of diamonds in the 1960s, out of which 20 per cent of them were of gem quality. The diamond mine proved its worth since it produced around $13 billion worth of diamonds for the entire world.
Fortune favoured Russia since they were still recovering from the Second World War. Their economy was practically shattered and they were desperate to rebuild it. The Mirny Diamond Mine proved to be a boon for them. It was found that the upper layers of the mine produced the finest of the diamonds as compared to the lower layers. However, some years later, there was a dramatic reduction in the production of diamonds. The mine only produced 2 million carats per year. Though the production had decreased, the success of the mine made many people suspicious. De Beers, a famous diamond manufacturing company, earlier had the monopoly when it came to the creation of diamonds.
They were threatened by the Mirny Diamond Mine and insisted upon checking it. Surprisingly they were granted permission to visit the site. However, the Russians turned out to be clever and only allotted 20 min to visit the site.
It was indeed a short time to garner any useful information, but the company managed to gather one vital information. They were surprised to note that the Russian did not use Water to process Ore, they used the dry crushing method because of the freezing weather. Despite its diamond success, the mine was very well known for another reason. They were rumor's that suggested that the Diamond mine was a death trap for anything that flew above it. The now-abandoned mine could suck anything that wandered too close to its surface, especially helicopters.
Though there were no real accidents that were reported, thankfully the mine has been closed and people have been prohibited from flying their helicopter above it. It is officially a no-fly zone.
Possible Theories:
Scientists have proposed many theories to explain the mysterious vortex of the Mirny Diamond Mine. Recent theories state that the mine could be producing an air vortex effect which was powerful enough to prevent helicopters from lifting off and instead of dragging them to the depth of the mines.
They said that if the hole of the mine was deep enough, it could contain large amounts of warm air. Hence deeper the hole, the warmer the air is. Combined with the Cold air from all the sides of the surface, it could create wind shear.
Hence, if any helicopters flew over it, it could cause an abrupt change in the temperature, resulting in the helicopter losing altitude before they could stabilize themselves, which would immediately result in the helicopter crashing into the mine. Yes, the mine had claimed many lives before. However, they were mostly from mine-related accidents and not from the rumored vortex or helicopter crashes. Recently, the mine was shut down for a short period in 2017, when water leaked into its underground operations. Out of the 100 workers, only 92 of them could be rescued.
Conclusion:
As of now, the mine has been shut down due to the various accidents that took place in the past as well as in recent times. However, for now, the vortex of the Mirny Diamond Mine still remains a mystery. A seemingly bottomless pit with the power to suck in anything, once known to produce more than half of the World’s diamonds.
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