Artificial islands

Artificial islands
What is a better symbolization of a manufactured landscape than an artificial islands? When you talk about artificial islands i guess that everybody would immediately think about the Palm island projects at Dubai. These are the biggest artifcial islands under construction in the world today. In total 4 big artificial island projects are going on here: The Palm Jumeirah island project (Check out the skyscrapercity thread ) ,the Palm Jebel Ali project (skyscrapercity thread ) , the Palm Deira project ( not visible in google maps yet ), and the amazing World Islands project.

(skyscrapercity thread). All these projects together can be seen in the picture below:



Similar to the Palm Islands in Dubai is the Al Bahrain artificial island project in Bahrain. The project consist of a series of 13 small man-made islands linked together to form 1 island. Totally it is covering an area of 20 million square meters:



In the northern part of Bahrein is another large artificial island. This is called Amwaj Island project. The Amwaj Islands was reclaimed from the relatively shallow seas to the northeast of Muharraq Island, which is the northernmost island in the Kingdom of Bahrain.The Islands contain residential, commercial (highrise) and hotel and retail buildings, as well as a 240 m diameter circular marina with over 140 berths:


When talking about the largest artificial island you have to be in the Netherlands. The Flevopolder, which was reclaimed on the Zuiderzee and was completed in 1968, is the biggest artificial island in the world:

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Longest bridges

Longest bridges:
The longest bridge in the world is the Lake Pontchartrain bridge which is 38.42 km long and is crossing the Pontchartrain lake from New Orleans to Mandeville. It is stretching as far as the eye can see:





The second longest bridge is also situated in the USA, and is the Chesapeake bay bridge that connects Norfolk to Northhampton county. This bridge is 37 km long. It als has 2 tunnels in it so the ships can pass into the bay. Like you can see below:



In China the third longest bridge is located. This bridge is called the Hangzhou bay bridge ( Not visible from this height in google maps ) and is 32.5 km long. It is connecting the Shanghai metropol to the city of Ningbo. It is an very important bridge for the regions economy, because it brings back the traveling time between these two cities with a couple of hours:





Equal in length (32.5 km) is the Donghai bridge which is located in the same region. It connects Shanghai with the Yangshan island.




The King Fahd Cause way which connects the state of Bahrain with Saudi Arabia is the fifth longest bridge in the world. It is 25km long. In the middle of the bridge there is an island with bording crossing posts on it:


Among the 10 longest bridges in the world are also: The Vasco de Gama bridge in Lisabon (17.2 km), the Painang bridge in Malaysia (13.5km) , the Rio-Niteroi bridge in Rio de Janeiro ( 13.29km), the San Mateo-Hayward bridge in the Bay of San Fransisco (11.26km), and the Seven mile bridge in Southern Florida.

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Aluminium smelters

Aluminium production:
Aluminium smelting is the process of extracting aluminium from its oxide alumina. Alumina is extracted from the ore Bauxite at an alumina refinery. The process of extracting aluminium from Alumina is an electrolytic process, so an aluminium smelter uses prodigious amounts of electricity. They tend to be located very close to large power stations, often hydro-electric ones, and near large alumina refineries where the alumina is produced. Others are situated along ports since a lot of them use imported alumina.

Largest Aluminium smelters:
Bratsk aluminium smelter is the largest producer of primary aluminium in the world. The smelter accounts for 30% of aluminium production in Russia and 4% of the world’s output. In 2007, it produced 995,000 tonnes of primary aluminium. This smelter is near the Bratks hydro elektric power station and uses a lot of the power coming from it. Russia also has the second largest smelter in the world located in Krasnoyarsk. The facility produced 989,000 tonnes of primary aluminium in 2007. The smelter accounts for 27% of aluminium production in Russia and for 3% of global output. It is located in the vicinity of the Krasnoyarsk Hydropower Plant and consumes approximately 70% of its energy. The pictures below were made in one of the Krasnoyarsk 26, 600 meters long, smelting "halls":







With a capacity of 872.000 tons of aluminium the factory in Manama in Bahrain is the world third biggest. The Hillside Aluminium factory in Richards Bay in South Africa has a capacity of 675.00 tons of aluminium per year and is therefore currently the fourth biggest in the world:

Aluminerie Alouette is the America’s largest aluminum smelter,and ranking fifth internationally. It is located in Sept-Iles in Canada and has a capacity of 572.000 million tonnes per year:


Among the biggest in the world are also the Boyne island smelter in Australia with a capacity of 545.000 tonnes per year, this smelter in Maputo in Mozambique with a production of 530.000 tonnes per year, this one in Australia in Tomago with a capacity of 520.000 tonnes per year. And this one in Tursunzoda in Tadsjikistan with also a capacity of 520.000 tonnes per year. You might wonder why China, which is the biggest producer of aluminium in the world, doesn't have a smelter among the biggest in the world. This is because china has a lot of smelters but none of them has a capacity of more then 400.000 tonnes per year. Their biggest is situated in Qingtongxia with a production of 385.000 per year. Although this may change very soon because China is planning a huge smelter in the city of Gganhzhou. Europe's biggest is in Sunndal in Norway with a capacity of 328,800 tonnes per year:


The biggest in the US is this smelter in Evansville in Indiana with a capacity of 309.000 tonnes per year.

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