Inco Superstack
Tuesday, 17th May 2005 by Alex Turnbull
The Inco Superstack is the tallest chimney in the Western hemisphere. Wikipedia says:
The Superstack sits atop the largest nickel smelting operation in the world at Inco's Copper Cliff processing facility in the city of Greater Sudbury. It was constructed by Inco Limited in 1972 at an estimated cost of 25 million dollars. The 1,257 foot (381 m) structure was built to disperse sulphur gases and other by-products of the smelting process away from the city itself. As a result, these gases can be detected in the atmosphere around Greater Sudbury in a 150 mile radius of the Inco plant.
150 miles doesn't seem all that surprising when you see the vast plume of fumes extending Northwards.
Thanks: Ian
About the author
Alex has decided that his title will be Senior Vice President of Stuff.
That is a very odd angle, looks like it’s hanging off the planet.
The girls are out to Bingo and the boys are gettin’ stinko, And we think no more of Inco on a Sudbury Saturday night. The glasses they will tinkle when our eyes begin to twinkle, And we’ll think no more of Inco on a Sudbury Saturday night. And we’ll think no more of Inco on a Sudbury Saturday night.
Stompin’ Tom Connors, “Sudbury Saturday Night”
(Sorry, I couldn’t resist. 🙂
For all those who don’t know, that thing to the right is a nickel mine. There is a giant nickel there. Only being to Sudbury a few times to visit relatives, I don’t know the exact location, but I know it is somewhere there.
mmmmm the Big Cigarette.. ahh Sudbury.. how I miss thee.. 😉 And then they wonder why the lakes are dead!
Instead of constructing a filter to clean the gases they built a higher chimney. This is real american kind of thinking of environmental health.
Incredible. And annoying.
Yea, except this is in Canada.
Heh – isn’t it in Canada?
Anyway, you can clearly see how the prevailing winds tend to shift to the right (clockwise) as altitude increases.
The shadow is more impressive than the smokestack. And Marsh, maybe they didn’t have the filters back then. Maybe it includes filters. But nice try.
There’s a stack almost as tall (about 40 feet shorter) on the south shore of the Great Salt Lake (the Kennecotte stack), at 40° 43′ 18″ 112° 11′ 52″ (wow, Maps.google.com takes coordinates). Alas, this area is low-res so you can’t really see the stack.
Could someone take the height of this chimney, the angle and calculate the length of the shadow to figure out the size of the blocks on gmaps?
Keep in mind most of these photos are mathematically manipulated to adjust for elevation
http://www.esri.com/news/arcuser/1001/standup.html
Yeah, it does seem like an American thing to do, and YES, the stack is in Canada. But it is owned by Inco, an American company.
Did I write “American”? Ok, but isn’t Canada part of America, too? Guys, there stil is a difference between the USA and America, even if you don’t know.
When Bush says ‘god bless america’, I like to think that those of us from Canada are not included in his wish.
LOL!
When Bush sais ‘god bless America’, he means white, christian, patriotic inhabitants of the USA. I’m not sure if he is aware of additional countries on that continent. Maybe he even thinks of Texas only…?
cool i live in Sudbury did a project on the stack cool site its really helping my with my workrelly cool idea with the map i wonder if i can find my subdivision =)
I live about 500meters away from this stack, there is my road, then some grass, then its the stack, im one of the closest houses to it. You should see the view from my front yard!!!!If anyone is interested in seeing photos from my front yard email me at [email protected]
This is step one in the destructive, environmentally disatrous, production of batteries for hybrid cars. Everyone who thinks a hybrid is good for the environment needs to go take a deep whiff of the air in Sudbury. Or better still go walk around the moonscape that used be scenic Canadian countryside around this plant.
I have pictures from the top. I worked on it replacing the concreate at 1225 and 1086 feet in the summer of 2008. That gass is deadly. ill never forget Sudbury. Try climbing the ladder on the inside all the way to the top. Its,,,,,, fun.
Oddly enough, my home base is about the same distance from their South Wales plant…they go a lot further in depolluting their output in our neck of the woods.