I was looking at arial photos of north-western Europe in Google Maps when I noticed a big white dot on the map!
I thought, what the hell? To satisfy my curiosity I decided to zoom in for further investigation.
It turns out that the big white dot is a giant surface mine. The 48 km² mine is operated by RWE and used for mining lignite, also known as brown coal.
Fun fact: 50% of Greece's power supply and 27% of Germany's comes from burning lignite. Lignite also has innovative uses in farming and drilling.
Isn't the geometric juxtaposition of farmland, urban area and surface mine quite enchanting? To get a sense of the scale, take a look at the size of cars next to the big heavy machine; then try to find the big heavy machine on the zoomed out image.
Here is a video that displays the grotesque beauty of the place...