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Mind-Bending Soviet Era Oil Rig City on the Caspian Sea
- rramadass 2y agoTrailer - https://vimeo.com/ondemand/oilrocks https://vimeo.com/ondemand/oilrocks Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neft_Da%C5%9Flar%C4%B1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neft_Da%C5%9Flar%C4%B1
- Symbiote 2y agoAnd a satellite map: https://maps.yandex.com/?ll=50.858333,40.236111&spn=0.1,0.1&l=sat&pt=50.858333,40.236111 https://maps.yandex.com/?ll=50.858333,40.236111&spn=0.1,0.1&... (Only Yandex seems to have imagery, the other services cut it out as it's too far offshore.)
- spacesanjeet 2y agoThat is hands down one of the coolest maps I have come across. Thanks a lot for sharing.
- ant6n 2y agoYou can get walking directions, it’s about 9.5km end-to-end along the furthest connected points. Looks like the roads going further out have collapsed.
- ffsoftboiled 2y agohttps://archive.ph/GCmDC https://archive.ph/GCmDC
- drops 2y ago[flagged]
- pyrale 2y agoIt's in Azerbaijan, not Russia.
- Ponet1945 2y ago[flagged]
- Etheryte 2y agoI mean, it's a pretty straightforward stance to understand, if not sympathize. If you pay taxes in Russia, your efforts directly support the war in Ukraine. You can have all sorts of arguments about choice and will, but this underlying truth remains the same.
- lexicality 2y agoDo you consider yourself personally responsible for what the government does with your taxes?
- sedan_baklazhan 2y agoTime for Ukraine to wage war on Azerbaijan.
- Qem 2y agoHow long real state prices can keep climbing before people are forced to start colonizing seas or lakes like this?
- christophilus 2y agoThese will never be economical. Waterworld will always be sci-fi, unfortunately.
- zemvpferreira 2y agoCities ocuppy maybe 0.5% of available land, if you’re generous. We’re not wanting for solid ground.
- Cthulhu_ 2y agoGlobally no, but locally yes; the Netherlands famously turned a sea inlet into a lake, then reclaimed a province from that lake: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flevoland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flevoland. The tradeoff is between urbanization (think Singapore) vs nature vs agriculture. The Netherands doesn't want or isn't ready for building tall yet, for some reason.
- bastawhiz 2y agoThe Netherlands undertook that project for flood protection and to increase land for agriculture. You can't exactly do that on oil platforms.
- justsomehnguy 2y ago> The Netherands doesn't want or isn't ready for building tall yet, for some reason. >> Population • 9 November 2024 estimate Neutral increase 18,212,400[7] (69th) • 2011 census 16,655,799[8] • Density 520/km2 (1,346.8/sq mi) (33rd) Compare with Singapore: >> Density 7,804/km2 (20,212.3/sq mi) (2nd)
- ywvcbk 2y ago
- orbital-decay 2y ago>When filmmaker Marc Wolfensberger first found out about Neft Daşları, he thought it was a myth. He kept hearing about this secretive city In what way it was secretive or a myth?? There were multiple books and movies about it, it was a major job source and a ton of people worked there.
- instig007 2y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BT_Tower#Secrecy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BT_Tower#Secrecy
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- pimlottc 2y agoIt says he learned about it in the 90s, information about distant parts of the world was much harder to come by back then, particular regarding Soviet countries (at least for Westerners)
- timonoko 2y agoWhat was the Soviet film about hero Komissar riding around on a motocycle on those bridges and fixing all kinds of problems?
- kranke155 2y agoOh I’d love to know. Sounds cool
- timonoko 2y agoPlenty of films about Oilfields of Baku. https://www.azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/53_folder/53_articles/53_revolution.html https://www.azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/53_folder/53_... Because it was in glorius SovColor and because the hero had greasy ElvisPresley-pompadour, I would say it was shot in between 1960-1970.
- 082349872349872 2y agoThe 1966 "26 commissars" is b/w, so maybe later than that? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8riDkh3hJHY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8riDkh3hJHY There's a painting in colour, however: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/26_Baku_Commissars#/media/File:The_Execution_of_the_Twenty_Six_Baku_Commissars.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/26_Baku_Commissars#/media/File... Lagniappe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azerbaijan_Democratic_Republic#:~:text=Among%20the%20important,equal%20political%20rights https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azerbaijan_Democratic_Republic... EDIT: wrong geography, but apparently the "technical" long predates the Toyota Hilux: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9fbO9NX1no#t=3553s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9fbO9NX1no#t=3553s
- 1oooqooq 2y agomost people ignore wwii was decided on baku. it was the reason for Barbarossa, the first Germany defeat, and it was the only way Germany could replenish the oil used on the Russian offensive, which forced them to squeeze the polish camps dry. they lost it one baku. it was also where most modern billionaires made their fortune.
- Arainach 2y ago>was also where most modern billionaires made their fortune Could you explain this claim?
- palmfacehn 2y agoThe Baku oil fields were capitalized by the Rothschild banking dynasty, which was already immensely wealthy before the oil age. Perhaps others will weigh in, but as I recall this was in response to the fabulous wealth Rockefeller was realizing in the United States. Petroleum had always been present around Baku and elsewhere, but it hadn't been exploited on the same industrial scale. It was sometimes regarded as an inconvenience which devalued land.
- kjellsbells 2y agoExactly so. A really good, very readable book on this and oil in general is Daniel Yergin's The Prize.
- mistrial9 2y agoyes agree that is an enjoyable and informative read..
- Arainach 2y agoSure - I don't doubt that Baku made some people fabulously rich, I'm more curious about "most modern billionaires", specifically "most". I'm not even convinced that most modern billionaires made their billions through petroleum, much less Baku.
- shawn_w 2y agoWhen did CNN get a paywall?
- bcks 2y agoA month ago. https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/01/media/cnn-launch-digital-subscription-paywall/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/01/media/cnn-launch-digital-subs...
- IncreasePosts 2y agoIf you replace the www in the URL with lite, those articles are still free, even the paywalled articles. No picture or video content as an added bonus
- yuxt 2y agoIn the late 1980s, I went on an expedition along Kazakhstan's eastern shore of the Caspian Sea. One of our stops was supposed to be a fishing village, but when we got there, it was completely empty. Hundreds of mud huts sat abandoned as everyone had just disappeared. In one of the yards, a camel was still there. It felt haunting, like walking through a ghost town. The strangest part? There was no sea anywhere nearby! The Caspian had dried up so quickly that people had to leave their homes behind because they couldn’t live there anymore.
- Self-Perfection 2y agoI think your expedition was actually along Aral sea. That is dried. Caspian sea is rather stable.
- yuxt 2y agoThe Volga Hydroelectric Station, located on the Volga River, directly impacts the Caspian Sea. The Volga River, Europe’s longest, flows into the Caspian Sea and contributes about 80% of its freshwater inflow. The construction of the Volga Hydroelectric Station and other dams along the river has altered its natural flow, reducing the volume of water reaching the Caspian Sea. This reduction has contributed to the sea’s declining water levels. https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/150452/the-caspian-seas-shrinking-coastline https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/150452/the-caspian-...
- Izikiel43 2y agoIs that the dam from metro exodus?
- danielskogly 2y agoWould make sense considering a previous level is called «The Volga», and the level with the dam[0] supposedly was to be called that. The oil rigs in the later level is decidedly the Caspian[1] though! [0] https://metrovideogame.fandom.com/wiki/The_Taiga_(Metro_Exodus_Level) https://metrovideogame.fandom.com/wiki/The_Taiga_(Metro_Exod... [1] https://metrovideogame.fandom.com/wiki/The_Caspian_(Metro_Exodus_Level) https://metrovideogame.fandom.com/wiki/The_Caspian_(Metro_Ex...
- abcd_f 2y agoDoesn't appear on the satellite view in Google Maps. Just water. What's up with that? https://maps.app.goo.gl/dr71WrLZ7G97E5br9?g_st=ic https://maps.app.goo.gl/dr71WrLZ7G97E5br9?g_st=ic
- Elfener 2y agoInteresting. It's not just the oil rig itself, the whole lake's satellite view is the same blue colour, while other bodies of water are more detailed.
- pxeger1 2y agoOceans, plus I guess the Caspian Sea, don’t get much satellite coverage because no one (except militaries) wants it enough. For the ocean, Google Maps uses bathymetry data to synthesise shaded blue imagery. The Caspian in particular I guess is such a uniform colour either because it’s so shallow that Google’s shading algorithm doesn’t shade it at all? (Compare to the northwesternmost parts of the Adriatic Sea, for example)
- jcrawfordor 2y agoA big issue here too is the image stitching; aerial images are registered for big tile maps based in part on feature analysis of the edges and that just never works right for images of the ocean (mostly you have waves, and they're in different places in each image). Even if you register it perfectly the waves ensure that the edges will still have stitching artifacts. As a result the "false color" oceans that Google Maps shows just look better than actual imagery. The "imagery" source for the oceans in Google Maps is (or at least was) GEBCO, it's a global bathymetric dataset made by registering depth sounding tracks from mostly commercial vessels. I thought maybe GEBCO didn't cover the caspian sea but it looks like it does for the last decade or so, but admittedly it seems to be data from just one survey and it's tagged as limited quality (at least in older versions of the dataset), so maybe Google ignores it.
- alephnerd 2y agoProducts like Google Maps stitch satellite and aerial photos together to make a cohesive image. There's no reason to spend tens of thousands of dollars on getting precise images in the middle of a sea or ocean from Maxar so a low-res image is more than enough. Also, most of the high-res images you see of regions on Google Earth or Maps tends to come from aerial photography, not satellites. These products will also update the images every couple months to years. For example, you could see the aftermath of the Donetsk airport battle and Homs Siege in Google Maps in 2014-15, but not anymore.
- itronitron 2y agoThey could call it "Wet Texas"
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- malomalsky 2y agoMotherbase from mgs5
- wayvey 2y agoCame to say exactly that, similar vibe
- freefaler 2y agoThere is another very interesting field built over swamps and lakes in Siberia where they built the rigs on artificial islands. https://as2.ftcdn.net/v2/jpg/01/99/42/41/1000_F_199424123_E5uN1gWVkxy1siYIhhCrdPJB1TvSJukO.jpg https://as2.ftcdn.net/v2/jpg/01/99/42/41/1000_F_199424123_E5... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samotlor_Field?useskin=vector https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samotlor_Field?useskin=vector https://maps.app.goo.gl/nq28Ct4FLyBGx5eP8 https://maps.app.goo.gl/nq28Ct4FLyBGx5eP8 It was deemed too strategically important and was not put on maps.
- pornel 2y agoThis looks like an exploit in a city-building game — spam the map with bridges, get free oil.
- mleonhard 2y agoHere's another article about Neft Daşları with more photos: https://web.archive.org/web/20240225112359/https://guerrillasemiotics.com/2012/11/spatial-poetics-stalins-atlantis/ https://web.archive.org/web/20240225112359/https://guerrilla... Bing Maps shows the bridges and some platforms with good resolution: https://www.bing.com/maps?cp=40.061519%7E49.607735&lvl=12.0&style=h&v=2&sV=2 https://www.bing.com/maps?cp=40.061519%7E49.607735&lvl=12.0&... Yandex Maps shows the constellation of isolated platforms to the south-east: https://yandex.com/maps/?l=sat%2Cskl&ll=49.630795%2C40.039397&utm_source=main_stripe_big&z=13 https://yandex.com/maps/?l=sat%2Cskl&ll=49.630795%2C40.03939...
- thoughtpeddler 2y agoIsn't this where those scenes from James Bond 007's World is Not Enough were shot?