Dublin: 1 °C Thursday 30 January, 2025
Advertisement

The world's longest conveyor belt is clearly visible from space

It’s 100km long and runs across a desert.

Source: jbdodane

THIS IS THE world’s longest conveyor belt.

It runs for 100km across the desert of Western Sahara, and was constructed decades ago by a phosphate mining operation. Instead of trucking the phosphate ore across the sands to the coast, they simply built a giant conveyor belt to do the job for them.

The machine is so long, it is visible from orbit. Some of the light-coloured ore blows off the belt and creates a giant stripe across the desert.

This is what it looks like from space:

Source: NASA

You can clearly see its path all the way to the coast.

Source: Google Earth

Here’s where the belt starts at the mine:

Source: jbdodane

And stretches out far into the distance:

Source: jbdodane

via Neatorama

More: This personal ad burn from 1973 still packs a punch, 40 years later>

About the author:

Michael Freeman

Read next:

COMMENTS (1)