| Caption: Stockpile of overburden in a tailings settling pond with the Syncrude processing plant in the background. Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. |
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| Facts: Overburden is used to describe the material that lies above the area or point of interest in the subsurface. Overburden is quite different to tailings. Tailings are the materials left over after most of the recoverable materials have been extracted - these can be toxic and/or corrosive. Overburden is simply material removed in order to get to the area of economic interest and is usually not contaminated. Overburden is often used to restore/reclaim the land. In the photograph the overburden will be spread over the tailings pond. Syncrude is the largest producer of oil in Canada and supplies some 13% of the country’s oil requirements. The company is located in the Athabasca Oil Sands in northeastern Alberta, Canada. The Athabasca Oil sands are the largest reservoir of crude bitumen in the world. |
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| Photographer: David Nunuk |
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| File Info: |
| HIGH RES: TIF, 5100x3394, 49.5MB |
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| Keywords:
overburden, tailings, tailings pond, Syncrude, hydrocarbons, oil, petroleum, petroleum plant, Alberta, greenhouse gas, greenhouse gases, natural gas, emissions, environment, environmental, global warming, flaring, pollution, air pollution, oil refinery, oil refineries, tar sands, bitumen, oil sands, crude oil, tailings ponds, settling pond, settling ponds |
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