FREAK Shots: The Oil Sands
Photographer Louis Helbig has been photographing Canada’s oil sands mining (featured in a Freakonomics contest last week) for several years, with fascinating results.
This is a photo of an open pit mine:
![DESCRIPTION](http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/05/13/opinion/Candian-Mine/Candian-Mine-blogSpan.jpg)
The overburden, “a layer of earth, sand and gravel up to 100 feet deep covering the bitumen” must be stripped before mining begins:
![DESCRIPTION](http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/05/13/opinion/Overburden-Removal/Overburden-Removal-blogSpan.jpg)
A tar pond, with a scarecrow. Birds often land on the tar ponds and are poisoned by the toxic water:
![DESCRIPTION](http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/05/13/opinion/Tar-Pond/Tar-Pond-blogSpan.jpg)
A bitumen slick:
![DESCRIPTION](http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/05/13/opinion/Bitumen-Slick/Bitumen-Slick-blogSpan.jpg)
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