The Toxic Lake

Geamana is an abandoned village in Romania. It was a very nice and happy village up until 1978, when the Communist regime forced residents to leave their homes and make way for the toxic waste from a nearby mining pit. Everything started in 1977 when dictator Nicolae Ceausescu decided to exploit a huge underground copper deposit. In only one year, the work began and everybody from Geamana was evacuated. he nearby copper pit of Rosia Poieni in the Apuseni Mountains is still the largest copper reserve in Romania. While the exploitation has stopped for now, It produced around 11,000 tons of copper a year in its prime. However, the mine also produced a lot of toxic waste that needed to be stored — the reason the Geamana village was sacrificed. Some 400 families were evacuated from Geamana and their village was replaced by an artificial lake which functioned as a kind of catch-basin for the mine’s contaminated sludge. As the exploitation continued, the lake grew more and more, gulping up what used to be a village and creating the surreal landscape we see today. The acidic lake contains cyanide, which is used in the extraction process. The church and a few houses are all that remains of the village today. Full article here: https://www.zmescience.com/other/feature-post/geamana-village-romania-toxic/