the world's most metal job
Jan. 13th, 2014 10:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
asakiyume. . . has surely got to be working in the sulfur mines in the crater of Kawah Ijen, a volcano in East Java, Indonesia. Stop and think a moment. Sulfur mining. In a volcano.
It's a world of fire, acid, and poisonous gases.
(There is an acid lake in the crater.)
Molten sulfur is blood red, but it burns with a blue flame. The photographer Olivier Grunewald took these photos, which ran in the Boston Globe on 8 December 2010. (Source for the entire photo essay here.) (Hat tip to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
yamamanama for showing me these!)
sulfur flames
image © Olivier Grunewald
image © Olivier Grunewald
molten sulfur
image © Olivier Grunewald
The Boston Globe had another photo essay on the mine on 1 June 2009, focused more on the hard-labor aspects. Workers pry the raw mineral sulfur out by hand and carry it down the mountain in heavy-laden baskets, on their backs ...
photo by Ulet Ifansati
photo by Ulet Ifansati
In conclusion. If you want to do a Cracked list about working in actual hellish circumstances, don't leave out the sulfur mine of Kawah Ijen.
It's a world of fire, acid, and poisonous gases.
Molten sulfur is blood red, but it burns with a blue flame. The photographer Olivier Grunewald took these photos, which ran in the Boston Globe on 8 December 2010. (Source for the entire photo essay here.) (Hat tip to
yamamanama for showing me these!)sulfur flames
image © Olivier Grunewald
image © Olivier Grunewald
molten sulfur
image © Olivier Grunewald
The Boston Globe had another photo essay on the mine on 1 June 2009, focused more on the hard-labor aspects. Workers pry the raw mineral sulfur out by hand and carry it down the mountain in heavy-laden baskets, on their backs ...
photo by Ulet Ifansati
photo by Ulet Ifansati
In conclusion. If you want to do a Cracked list about working in actual hellish circumstances, don't leave out the sulfur mine of Kawah Ijen.
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no subject
Date: 2014-01-13 03:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-13 11:51 pm (UTC)… Not sure if that made any sense, though. I don't mean to dis romances, which I *love*, and I'm not trying to say (not upon reflection, anyway), that one couldn't write a romance with this in it and have it work, just that the *reality* of the place makes certain demands. yeah. I think that's what I'm trying to say...
no subject
Date: 2014-01-13 03:53 pm (UTC)I feel for people who must descend into that every day just to earn a living. I hope they're as safe and well as possible.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-13 11:42 pm (UTC)I think you could put it in a story and have it be believable--but it would be a different kind of story: one focused on those workers . . .
no subject
Date: 2014-01-13 04:36 pm (UTC)I haven't seen those blue flame images before. Beautiful!
_____________
* but sulphur mining is not what is happening in my story. And looking at my "ph" spelling. I seem to gravitate towards more US-external spellings like travelling and grey, and this dates back to early grade school when my teacher refused to let me put a U in color. :P I maintained that it was a valid spelling, but she was having none of it and insisted I should know at age 7-8, in pre-Internet days, that there was a difference between American and British spelling and should not be influenced by things I saw printed in a book when SHE had taught the class otherwise. And look my tangent! :P
no subject
Date: 2014-01-13 11:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-13 05:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-13 11:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-13 05:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-13 11:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-13 06:04 pm (UTC)My grandads were colliers and I know how appalling a job that was, so I can only imagine.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-13 11:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-13 06:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-13 11:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-13 06:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-13 11:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-13 07:49 pm (UTC)That cannot be good for a person.
You wonder why so many of the most beautiful things are things that will kill you.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-13 11:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-13 07:57 pm (UTC)It's also worth stopping to think what happens to that sulfur afterwards, won from the mouth of a volcano. It could well be in the food you eat, or the tires of the car you drive...
no subject
Date: 2014-01-13 10:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-13 08:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-13 11:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-13 11:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-13 11:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-13 08:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-13 11:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-13 09:55 pm (UTC)Those are amazing, amazing photos!
no subject
Date: 2014-01-13 11:13 pm (UTC)One day I hope to get to Indonesia, or if not there, some other volcano-rich area, and visit some volcanoes.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-13 10:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-13 11:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-13 11:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-13 11:17 pm (UTC)The movie sounds awesome--really wonderful.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-14 06:06 am (UTC)Sulphur isn't a metal, though.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-14 11:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-15 01:43 am (UTC)