Rake Nauru: dug up and almost destroyed the island, now they are ready to dig the bottom of the ocean (8 photos)

The dwarf state of Nauru, occupying the eponymous coral island in the Pacific Ocean, hit the news because of an unusual mining solutions. The irony is that it is the loot on the island phosphorite once glorified this island - only history ended very badly.





Nauru - it can be seen that the trees remained only along the edges of the island

The area of the island of Nauru is only 21.3 square kilometers, with local residents have always preferred to settle along the coast, the central part of the island was covered with forest, animals ran there, birds nested - in general, almost a paradise. Especially the island – not far from the equator, excellent climate, always warm...

The plate that covered everything

So it was until the end of the 19th century, when a certain geologist Albert Ellis discovered phosphate ore on the island, which could be used to make expensive and very high quality fertilizers.

What does the story of this "discovery" look like - supposedly Ellis decided to find out what the stove was made of, which stood in the office of the company Pacific Islands Company in Sydney. Only known about this plate, that she was brought from the island of Nauru.

The geologist, realizing what value he had discovered, went to expedition to the island. It turned out that there is a lot of this good, but everything located in the same area where the forest grows.



Nauru Island on the map

Apparently, it is precisely that these places are always remained wild, and allowed such a large number of "natural wealth". And in fact, it is not even known exactly how they are here. appeared - on coral islands, in fact on a reef.

Where are the fossils on the reef

According to one version, in fact, the same phosphate ore - This is bird droppings that have accumulated here for thousands of years. We have already written about the so-called Guano Islands Act - a law that allowed literally steal the same litter on the "guan islands" in Pacific Ocean.

According to another version, the nature of the appearance of phosphates on the island is different. - supposedly the island for some quite a long time went under water, and during this period a lot of any precipitation, for some reason rich in phosphate.



Phosphorite mining on the island of Nauru

Choose any version, because in this case it is not so and important. Be that as it may, already in 1905, the same Pacific Islands Company began mining on the island, having concluded an agreement with Germany, of which Nauru was then a colony (since 1888).

From hand to hand

However, with the outbreak of the First World War, the island was captured by Australia - not without the participation of the renamed Pacific Phosphate Company the company already mentioned above, on whose ship they arrived in Nauru Australian soldiers.

During the Second World War, the island was captured by the Japanese, after of the war, the island was essentially again ruled by the Australians, although formally the UN answered.

What is surprising is the volume of production, which, taking into account The size of the island is very impressive. Mining went on almost non-stop. for a century - about two million tons of that phosphate ore itself (according to mid-1970s data).



Phosphorite mining on the island of Nauru

It is unlikely that the countries involved in non-stop excavations at island feel guilty about something. Moreover, you can easily you can find articles in the press that the island of Nauru in the end ruined by the greed of its inhabitants.

Cons of Wealth

And there is something to talk about, of course, because at some point this country was the richest in terms of per capita income. Like this happened?

It is obvious that while others mined phosphorite, the inhabitants of the island received small crumbs from gigantic profits.

Those few thousand inhabitants of Nauru (by the beginning of the 70s last century, there were a little more than 6 thousand people) also wanted freedom (and money, of course) and somehow fought for it - in the end 31 January 1968, the year the country declared independence.

Independence resulted in the fact that all income from mining Phosphorites on the island began to receive a new state. They write that in at some point, the inhabitants of the island simply stopped working - money they were given just like that, as "a share of the people's welfare."



Inhabitants of Nauru

This led to, for example,that among the local population almost for the first time in the history of the island there were people suffering obese. At some point, 70 percent of people have experienced this problem. the inhabitants of the island.

They talk about such an incident: one of the local officials ordered a cool car (although there is only one on the island paved road), but could not ride it - did not climb on driving position due to its own size.

In general, the island was dug up without much thought about the future. Local authorities invested in the purchase of real estate in other countries, some businesses, ships, etc. All this had to be sell - when there was nothing left to dig on the island.

Now revealing facts: Nauru is the smallest independent republic on Earth, the smallest island state and the smallest state outside of Europe. And she doesn't even have capitals, because there are no cities as such - in the largest The settlement is inhabited by less than a thousand people.



Inhabitants of Nauru

Life after wealth

How the country lives now is not very clear, because there is nowhere to do agriculture, they dug up everything, almost the entire forest knocked out. At the site of the former "excavations" only pits with protruding from them with limestone blocks up to 15 meters high - between which, in fact, phosphorite was hiding.

The landscapes of today's Nauru are metaphorically called lunar - lifeless stones and nothing more.

And now back to the news with which we started the article. - agree, plans to mine rare earth metals at the bottom of the ocean next to the island look no longer so optimistic.

Reminds me of "walking on a rake", only problems now can arise not only within the framework of a single island - no one knows what is generally fraught with the conduct of such work on the extraction of minerals on bottom of the ocean.



Extraction of ore with rare earth metals on the ocean floor

It is clear that this business promises to be profitable - although even here the story looks paradoxical.

Dig the earth - dig the water

Rare earth metals are now in high demand because needed for the production of batteries for electric vehicles. Which in in turn is promoted as a way to improve the environment. However, for the sake of which accounts for ... well, you understand.

The topic of extracting the "wealth of the ocean" is not new - about this say not the first century. It's just that today there are already technologies that allow you to get these same fossils from the bottom without any problems ocean - which means that sooner or later this topic will be pushed through, convincing themselves and world that nothing bad happens.

But the most, probably, funny thing is what to get these metals off the coast of Nauru will again not be residents of the island and not even Nauru as a state, but large corporations.

Of course, they won’t leave them without the next crumbs from the master’s table. - perhaps this will somehow help the economy of the island, about which supporters the beginning of development at the bottom of the ocean is also said. Although, probably There are other ways to feed 11,000 people without destroying the ocean.



The almost deserted island of Nauru