Underground wonders

Have been using my Del.icio.us tags again and found some new entries on the 7 Wonders site. Here are two of the best

World’s Largest Diamond Mine: (via DeputyDog): The Mirny Diamond Mine in Siberia may be one of the scariest mines in the world (in addition to being the world’s largest open diamond mine). It is over a thousand feet deep and thousands of feet wide. It is so large it actually creates its own local weather patterns and the space above it has had to be designated a no-fly zone for helicopters (after this problem was identified the hard way). Gigantic trucks (like the small dot pointed to above) can haul over 200 tons of material out of the mine at a time, winding up and down the frightening spiral path that leads to the center of the mine.

Mormon Genealogical vaults The Mormons have some of the most sophisticated and thorough genealogical records in the world - 500 million pages of statistics dating back hundreds of years. So where does one horde such a rare treasure for safe-keeping? There is a nuke-proof underground bunker where the backups are kept carved into a granite cliffside outside of Salt Lake City. While the data is available to the public these original archival copies are kept completely secure. The folks of the Long Now project managed to get access but could only photograph the exterior. Inside, says their intrepid representative, long rows of microfilm storage resemble the endless stacks from "The Matrix" and a central water-catch zone (from the rock above) is reminiscent of Fremen water catches from "Dune".