Chilean miners are OK but...
Good Lord -- what conditions to be under. From the
Beeb:
Six steps to survival for Chile miners
The first supplies have reached the 33 miners trapped 2,300ft (700m) underground in a collapsed mine in Chile. With an estimated four months before they are rescued, what are the key challenges they face?
After the elation of learning they are alive comes the agony of waiting.
Seventeen days after the San Jose copper and gold mine collapsed, the news that all 33 men trapped inside are still alive was greeted with celebrations more than 2,000ft above them.
But their loved ones will probably have to wait until Christmas to see them again, because it will take that long to bore a new hole wide enough to pull them through.
Glucose, rehydration tablets, oxygen and medicine have made their way down from the surface through an 8cm lifeline and into the miners' refuge, which is thought to be about 50 square metres, although some reports say it could be larger.
Emphasis mine -- 8cm is just a tiny bit more than three inches in diameter.
Imagine having your only connection being a tube three inches in diameter and 2,000 feet long. Something out of an Edgar Allan Poe story. The stories these poor souls will tell will be macabre but amazing.
Posted by DaveH at August 24, 2010 8:50 PM