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

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Wow--those photos are jaw dropping!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

The photographer apparently lost one camera and a couple of lenses to the conditions!

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

That does not surprise me at all. I am just glad that he did not lose his life!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Ditto--and then you start thinking about everyone who works there daily….