1. Earthshots
  2. Athabasca Oil Sands, Alberta, Canada
  3. In Situ Mining
Description

To extract oil that is too deep for surface mining operations, in situ mining, or “in place” mining, is used. Mining companies use steam and gravity to bring the sticky oil to the surface. This method is used where the oil sand layer is deeper than 75 meters (246 feet).

Two parallel L-shaped wells reach into the deep oil sand deposit. One injects steam through holes in the pipe. This warms the oil and lowers its viscosity. The oil then flows down to the well below where it’s pumped to the surface.

This method is not as visible in the Landsat images as the surface mining is. Each well needs a “well pad,” a small area of boreal forest cleared. A growing number of small dots appear in a grid pattern over the time series images. A vertical line appears near the top of the 2009 image. This airport was built to fly in workers close to the mining sites.

Again, a Sentinel-2 image from September 29, 2016, shows the area in slightly finer detail at 20-meter resolution. The dots that represent well sites appear a little sharper in this view.

View Related Imagery & Stories

Location

Aug. 6, 1989, Landsat 5 (path/row 42/20) — in situ mining in the Athabasca Oil Sands, Alberta, Canada

Aug. 6, 1989, Landsat 5 (path/row 42/20) — in situ mining in the Athabasca Oil Sands, Alberta, Canada

Aug. 17, 1993, Landsat 5 (path/row 42/20) — in situ mining in the Athabasca Oil Sands, Alberta, Canada

Aug. 17, 1993, Landsat 5 (path/row 42/20) — in situ mining in the Athabasca Oil Sands, Alberta, Canada

Sep. 11, 2002, Landsat 5 (path/row 42/20) — in situ mining in the Athabasca Oil Sands, Alberta, Canada

Sep. 11, 2002, Landsat 5 (path/row 42/20) — in situ mining in the Athabasca Oil Sands, Alberta, Canada

June 28, 2004, Landsat 5 (path/row 42/20) — in situ mining in the Athabasca Oil Sands, Alberta, Canada

June 28, 2004, Landsat 5 (path/row 42/20) — in situ mining in the Athabasca Oil Sands, Alberta, Canada

July 4, 2006, Landsat 5 (path/row 42/20) — in situ mining in the Athabasca Oil Sands, Alberta, Canada

July 4, 2006, Landsat 5 (path/row 42/20) — in situ mining in the Athabasca Oil Sands, Alberta, Canada

Sep. 20, 2011, Landsat 5 (path/row 42/20) — in situ mining in the Athabasca Oil Sands, Alberta, Canada

Sep. 20, 2011, Landsat 5 (path/row 42/20) — in situ mining in the Athabasca Oil Sands, Alberta, Canada

Sep. 28, 2014, Landsat 8 (path/row 42/20) — in situ mining in the Athabasca Oil Sands, Alberta, Canada

Sep. 28, 2014, Landsat 8 (path/row 42/20) — in situ mining in the Athabasca Oil Sands, Alberta, Canada

July 15, 2016, Landsat 8 (path/row 42/20) — in situ mining in the Athabasca Oil Sands, Alberta, Canada

July 15, 2016, Landsat 8 (path/row 42/20) — in situ mining in the Athabasca Oil Sands, Alberta, Canada

Sep. 29, 2016, Sentinel-2 — in situ mining in the Athabasca Oil Sands, Alberta, Canada

Sep. 29, 2016, Sentinel-2 — in situ mining in the Athabasca Oil Sands, Alberta, Canada

Aug. 6, 1989, Landsat 5 (path/row 42/20) — in situ mining in the Athabasca Oil Sands, Alberta, Canada
Aug. 17, 1993, Landsat 5 (path/row 42/20) — in situ mining in the Athabasca Oil Sands, Alberta, Canada
Sep. 11, 2002, Landsat 5 (path/row 42/20) — in situ mining in the Athabasca Oil Sands, Alberta, Canada
June 28, 2004, Landsat 5 (path/row 42/20) — in situ mining in the Athabasca Oil Sands, Alberta, Canada
July 4, 2006, Landsat 5 (path/row 42/20) — in situ mining in the Athabasca Oil Sands, Alberta, Canada
Sep. 20, 2011, Landsat 5 (path/row 42/20) — in situ mining in the Athabasca Oil Sands, Alberta, Canada
Sep. 28, 2014, Landsat 8 (path/row 42/20) — in situ mining in the Athabasca Oil Sands, Alberta, Canada
July 15, 2016, Landsat 8 (path/row 42/20) — in situ mining in the Athabasca Oil Sands, Alberta, Canada
Sep. 29, 2016, Sentinel-2 — in situ mining in the Athabasca Oil Sands, Alberta, Canada

Athabasca Oil Sands, Alberta, Canada Additional Imagery & Stories

Bitumen
Bitumen

The oil type mined in the Athabasca oil sands region is bitumen. This naturally occurring oil is so viscous that even at room temperature it acts like...

Fire
Fire

You might have noticed that fire scars of varying size show up in some of these images. These fire scars show up as red or maroon against the green ve...

Mining Operations
Mining Operations

Getting oil from oil sands is fairly straight-forward. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy. In the Athabasca region near Fort McMurray, the oil sands are ...

Reclamation
Reclamation

The mining companies are required to restore the disturbed land to be at least as productive as it was before it was mined. Overburden that was remove...