Comments on: The chemical pools of Osarizawa mine

By: MokouMoe

MokouMoe — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 19:35:12 +0000

wow i live in Japan and i would like to go to haikyo like this too sadly i don’t have friends who’s interested to go with me and going alone is dangerous

By: JW

JW — Mon, 23 May 2011 04:47:11 +0000

I really enjoyed this. My grandpa was a POW at this mine in WWII for three years, and I have had a hard time finding any good pictures on it. Imagine spending your 21st birthday doing slave labor there, he did. Crazy times.

By: anime_tl

anime_tl — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 00:17:45 +0000

Let me clarify. I am vietnamese so I hope I get me english correct. The blue/green color is due to malachite/azurite. Im a chemistry major and malachite/azurite are naturally always attached to native copper. Always.Even if you took a native copper sample and let it sit those minerals would develop. Its a beautiful color even if a couple of the photos are photoshop.

Technically they could have been pools to collect these minerals found on native copper. Since they bond with water molecules. Sorry for such a late comment.

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 27 May 2010 20:45:18 +0000

Hello Michael!

I love the first and third fotos! Can you send me them in higher resolution? I’d like to have them as backgrounds on my computer.

Thank you!
-Tom (adatjoe@vipmail.hu)

By: Ruin of a Japanese WWII Shipyard | michael john grist

Ruin of a Japanese WWII Shipyard | michael john grist — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:09:09 +0000

[...] discovered that Osarizawa mine, the haikyo I went to in the Tohoku area, which had the brilliant blue pools and is still being [...]

By: Top 10 Haikyo | michael john grist

Top 10 Haikyo | michael john grist — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 01:09:45 +0000

[...] Osarizawa Factory and Mine Mining of gold and copper at the legendary Osarizawa mine began around 1,300 years ago, with the [...]

By: 5 Japanese Ghost Towns | michael john grist

5 Japanese Ghost Towns | michael john grist — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 02:44:50 +0000

[...] 2- Osarizawa Ghost Town [...]

By: MJG

MJG — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 23:42:49 +0000

Thanks for the clarification Evan, am sure you’ve hit the nail on the head there.

By: Evan

Evan — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 02:29:14 +0000

Just for clarification, the blue color of the water is probably due to dissolved copper (it was a copper mine, after all) or a solution of copper sulfate used to precipitate out purified solid copper. Speculation with a background in chemistry, so take it as you will, but I thought you might like to know

By: MJG

MJG — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 12:29:28 +0000

John- Thanks, and no worries on the mis-link, seems to be fixed now.

Kevin- Thanks, I had no idea. But those pools in particular? Probably the bigger pool, the one in the video, or other ones, cos those pools were surely not big enough to kill that many people.