North Cape, Norway

Postcard NO-102992 from Norway shows North Cape (Nordkapp in Norwegian), located on the northern coast of the island of Magerøya in Northern Norway and shown as a red pin in the following map. It is often mistakenly regarded as the northernmost point of Europe.

However, the neighboring Knivskjellodden point, shown as a green pin on the map below, is 1,457 meters or 4,780 feet farther to the north, which is sometimes considered the northernmost point of the entire continent of Europe.

Nonetheless, both of above points are located on an island. Cape Nordkinn (Kinnarodden in Norwegian), located on the Nordkinn Peninsula and shown as a yellow pin on the map, is the northernmost point of mainland Europe.

Regardless, North Cape is a popular tourist attraction with a 307-meter or 1,007-foot high cliff where visitors can watch the midnight sun or the panoramic views of the Barents Sea, part of the Arctic Ocean, to the north on a large flat plateau. The midnight sun can be seen from May 14 to the July 31 during which the sun reaches its lowest point above the horizon from 12:14 to 12:24 a.m.

Previously, I have featured the north cape in New Zealand in this blog.

Berkeley Pit Panorama

Postcard US-2967625 to the Netherlands was a vintage card showing a panorama of the Berkeley Pit, an open pit copper mine in Butte, Montana. Ektachromes by Clifford B. Ellis.

The mine, once the largest truck-operated open pit copper mine in the United States, was opened in 1955 and operated by Anaconda Copper. The Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO) bought the mine in 1977, and it was closed in 1982. Approximately 320 million tons of ore and over 700 million tons of waste rock were mined from the Butte Hill.

Measured one mile long (1.6 km) by half a mile (0,8 km) wide with an approximate depth of 1,780 feet (540 m), the pit began to collect groundwater from the surrounding aquifers once it was closed as the water pumps in the nearby shaft were turned off. Pyrite and sulfide minerals in the ore and wall rocks met dissolved oxygen in the water, releasing heavy metals and chemicals including copper, arsenic, cadmium, zinc, and sulfuric acid. According to PitWatch, with the bottom elevation at 4,263 feet above the sea level and the water level at 5,318.49 feet above sea level as of July 30, 2014, the pit had filled a depth of 1,055 feet (321.6 m) with water that was highly acidic (2.5 pH level) since 1982. Current projections estimate that the Critical Level at 5,410 feet above the sea level, which is close to the natural water table, will be reached around 2023 when the pit water may reverse flow back into groundwater, polluting Silver Bow Creek and rivers downstream.

The Berkeley Pit has since become one of the largest Superfund sites. Clean up plans have been in place since the 1990s.

Pigtail Bridges

Postcard US-2711416 from Minnesota shows an aerial view of two pigtail bridges and one of the tunnels on Iron Mountain Road, ascending 17 miles or 27 kilometers from Custer State Park to the entrance of Mount Rushmore National Memorial, in the Black Hills, Rapid City, South Dakota. Drivers will get a 360° panorama of the area that has many unique and beautiful scenic roads. Jess Stryker has a Youtube video showing driving through the one-lane tunnel, horseshoe curve, and 360° loop over and under one of the pigtail bridges. The Mount Rushmore came into view when exiting the tunnel.

View Iron Mountain Road in a larger map

Minsk, the City and the Rivers

Postcard BY-982349 from Belarus arrived today with a panorama view of the Trinity Suburb and the Svislach river embankment. Minsk is the capital of Belarus. With a population of 2,002,600 in 2013, it is the largest city in Belarus. The earliest history of Minsk dates as far as the 11th century. The settlement developed on the Svislach and Nyamiha rivers.