You’ll need the box
These slopes surround Longyearbyen. A jumble of billions of pieces of talus could, with a bit of patience and a lot of time, be put back together. Rock caps give way to steep slopes and mounds of coal mine tailings stretch across the valley floor, all creeping toward the fjord. Rock slides etch the ridges with geometric patterns that stand out under light snow cover. Ridge after ridge stands against the sky, crumbling into the earth.
A billion pieces…
A few billion more…
Maybe a bigger table…
Or the floor
It looks confusingly pristine. Can you smell the tailings in the cold air?
Rock, rock, and rock. No chemical or toxics smell, just coal removed from rock, and rock left in heaps.