Walking at too high a height can lead to altitude sickness, but what happens to those who decide to venture deep into the Earth’s interior?
In the past, miners and road engineers were the ones who had to regularly walk into the ground, their bodies were exposed to atmospheric pressure twice the pressure at the surface, and damage was done. which it causes to the body is sometimes very serious, even fatal. So what does it feel like to go deep into the Earth?
Although it is the 21st century, there are still too many mysteries that people have always dreamed of being able to discover.
The largest known deposit of rare earth metals in Europe has been discovered by a mining company in Sweden, near the Kiruna iron ore mine, the largest of its kind. Writing for NPR , international affairs correspondent Jackie Northam explained what it was like to make the 30-minute journey into the base of the iron ore mine.
“Your skin becomes noticeably drier, your ears tingle and it’s hard to escape the feeling of isolation as you walk down the dark road, you’ll only be guided by the reflector on the gray stone walls. Finally, when you reach the bottom, more than 4,000 feet (1,219 meters) below the Earth’s surface, you’ll discover a complex of brightly lit offices brilliant, a cafeteria and even a car wash.”
The symptoms should sound familiar to anyone who’s ever been on a plane, except that flying takes you very high in the sky, while this directs you straight down to the ground.
In a 2008 paper, scientists describe the deepest levels below the Earth’s surface where humans can reach:
The deepest of these is the Mponeng Gold Mine , formerly known as the Western Deep Gold Mine , located in Johannesburg, South Africa. According to Guinness World Records, “In 2012, mining depths reached 3.9km below the surface, and subsequent expansions have resulted in digging below the 4km mark.”
At this depth, miners are battling with temperatures that rapidly increase with depth . Stone walls have temperatures of up to 60°C and humidity can exceed 95 percent, but mitigation measures such as rock mud and ventilation systems have been used to bring these temperatures down to the extent possible. acceptable.
Bridge builders had to work in high-pressure air to be able to dig out the sediments without being flooded with water.
But temperature is only one part, and one of the biggest challenges humans face when going deep underground is the high pressure.
In fact, many deaths occurred during the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge in New York, USA, many of them suffering from caisson disease , also known as decompression sickness (CKD). . Many people might think this disease only happens to divers, but actually the first cases of this disease were diagnosed in miners and bridge builders.
According to History, the deaths from the disease initially occurred among urban miners and construction workers who worked underground on various excavation projects in New York City. As the workers dug deeper, their bodies experienced worse symptoms including muscle paralysis, slurred speech, joint pain and stomach cramps.
The debilitating symptoms were first known as caisson disease because people who contracted it were digging inside rooms of the same name sunk deep beneath the East River. They were an important part of the bridge’s construction as the sediment was dug out of the siphons until the hollow shaft was finally filled with concrete.
Barotrauma is caused by moving from an area of high pressure to an area of low pressure in a short period of time . For this reason, it is also known as decompression sickness and today it commonly affects divers, pilots, astronauts and those working in compressed air.
Moving from an area of high pressure, such as the deepest part of a mine, to an area of low pressure, such as the surface, can create bubbles of nitrogen gas in the body. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, when the change in pressure and release of gas into the body happen too quickly, it can be very painful and sometimes fatal.
Common symptoms of decompression sickness (CKD) include joint pain, bone destruction, marbled skin, stroke, paralysis, shortness of breath, and arterial air embolism… The good news is if the condition is If this is diagnosed early, it can be treated using a decompression chamber. This effectively reproduces slow motion from one state of pressure to another.