File:Hobet Mountaintop mine West Virginia 1984-09-18.jpg

English: Below the densely forested slopes of southern West Virginia’s Appalachian Mountains is a layer cake of thin coal seams. To uncover this coal profitably, mining companies engineer large—sometimes very large—surface mines. This image of a surface mine in Boone County, West Virginia from 1984. Based on data from NASA’s Landsat 5 satellite, this natural-color (photo-like) image document the Hobet mine in 1984. The natural landscape of the area is dark green, forested mountains, creased by streams and indented by hollows. The active mining areas appear off-white, while areas being reclaimed with vegetation appear light green. A pipeline roughly bisects the images from north to south. The town of Madison, lower right, lies along the banks of the Coal River.