Question

Carved into a hillside near Butte, Montana, lies the Berkeley Pit, an industrial body of water that stretches about 1 mile across and contains a volume of close to 40 billion gallons. This site was formerly an open pit copper mine abandoned in 1982 and left to fill up with water seeping out of the local aquifer. At the bottom of the pit lay a massive deposit of mining waste that was like an accident waiting to happen.

A gradual buildup over 20 years trans- formed the pit into a lake-size cauldron of concentrated chemicals so toxic that it quickly killed any animals or plants that came in contact with it. Substances found in abundance are lead, cadmium, iron, copper, arsenic, and sulfides. Chemical reactions caused the pit to become 10,000 times more acidic than normal freshwater. There is serious concern that water from the pit will contaminate local groundwater and river drainages, creating one of the greatest ecological disasters on record. The federal Environmental Protection Agency designated it as a major superfund cleanup site. So far, the only actions taken have been to divert the drainage water, treat it, and remove some of the heavy metals. But this is a short-term solution to a very long-term problem.

Enter some curious scientists from nearby Montana Tech University. When they began examining samples of the water under a microscope, they were startled at what they found. In spite of the hostile conditions that were seemingly deadly, the water turned out to be teeming with microscopic life. It included an array of very hardy eukaryotes and prokaryotes—a rich community of microorganisms—that had established a foothold in this toxic soup. Rather than being doomed to death, these robust colonists had survived, grown, and spread into available habitats in a relatively short time.

Answer 1

This pit is considered to be Life(once was a high source for minerals like copper,etc.,and Death (now filled with toxins and 10000 times acidic in nature as compared to normal water) It means no lives can survive or born in it but is astonishing the researchers by seeing the growth of microorganisms (prokaryotes and eukaryotes)

It was the biologist Grant Mitman who found something green on the pit and examination identified it has "Euglena mutabilis" .They can survive in any environment by the changing the environment as per their need.Here the organism increases the oxygen level with its mechanism of photosynthesis ,absorbs the iron and a specific character of it is the ability to change or alter the DNA which are damaged by themselves. Here comes the healthcare in getting an idea that it can be used in the research of Cancer to find a cure .In cancer cells if the affected DNA can be altered to normalcy is a success in its cure.The research are going in regards to find a new innovations and find a curative treatment for this chronic disease.