Satellite Image: Carajas Mine in Brazil

Gouged out of the Amazon, the Carajas mine — one of the world’s largest deposits of iron ore — stretches across more than six miles of rainforest in northeastern Brazil. Discovered in 1967, Carajas is an open pit mine where minerals are removed from the surface one layer at a time, as shown in this photograph taken by NASA’s EO-1 satellite in late July. In 2007, 296 million metric tons of iron ore were dug out of the mine, which is estimated to contain a total of 18 billion tons of iron ore, gold, manganese, copper, and nickel. The mine is one of scores of mining, hydropower, agricultural, and road projects that are increasingly denuding the world’s largest rainforest.