Two Tiny Rocky Islands: Nauru and Hashima

Some people might call them ecological or economic disaster sites. I like to think of them as little tragedies stranded out at sea.

Nauru has strip mined phosphate for the past 100 years. The eight-square-mile island achieved independence in 1968 only to face complete economic dependence by 2003, when the mining operation had dried up entirely. There is not a single square mile of arable land left on this dot in the Pacific which is 400 miles from its nearest inhabited neighbor. The cost to restore Nauru to its once-tropical luster is $230 million over the next 20 years.

Hashima claims to have the title as the most densely populated area on earth. Now the rocky outcropping near Nagasaki is uninhabited. Mitsubishi operated the tiny island like the "company towns" of mining operations in West Virgina or the U.P. - all the residents worked for the mine in some fashion. Unlike Nauru, Hashima's population and economy vanished with changing energy demands: coal was out, gas was in and the company closed the mine. (Found on Things)