the world's most metal job

[asakiyume]

. . . has surely got to be working in the sulfur mines in the crater of Kawah Ijen, a volcano in East Java, Indonesia. Stop and think a moment. Sulfur mining. In a volcano.

It's a world of fire, acid, and poisonous gases.

(There is an acid lake in the crater.)

Molten sulfur is blood red, but it burns with a blue flame. The photographer Olivier Grunewald took these photos, which ran in the Boston Globe on 8 December 2010. (Source for the entire photo essay here.) (Hat tip to yamamanama for showing me these!)

sulfur flames

image © Olivier Grunewald


image © Olivier Grunewald

molten sulfur

image © Olivier Grunewald


The Boston Globe had another photo essay on the mine on 1 June 2009, focused more on the hard-labor aspects. Workers pry the raw mineral sulfur out by hand and carry it down the mountain in heavy-laden baskets, on their backs ...


photo by Ulet Ifansati


photo by Ulet Ifansati

In conclusion. If you want to do a Cracked list about working in actual hellish circumstances, don't leave out the sulfur mine of Kawah Ijen.

Comments

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

Wow. I was about to put this in my Story Notes file but then I realized osprey_archer is right: it would break the reader's suspension of disbelief!

I feel for people who must descend into that every day just to earn a living. I hope they're as safe and well as possible.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I feel the same way about the people who work there.

I think you could put it in a story and have it be believable--but it would be a different kind of story: one focused on those workers . . .