Impressive rare photographs published by NASA revealed the extent of gold mining – much of it considered illegal – in Peru’s Amazon rainforest.
The “rivers of gold” captured in the images are actually wells believed to have been dug by unlicensed miners, says the space agency.
The wells, usually hidden from view, were illuminated by reflected sunlight.
An astronaut at the International Space Station (ISS) captured the unusual photos in December.
The images are further evidence of the scale of destructive gold mining in the Madre de Dios region in southeastern Peru.
The country is a major gold exporter and Madre de Dios is home to a huge unregulated industry, with thousands of miners trying to make a living.
The area is a biodiversity hotspot and the extractive industry has led to extensive deforestation and the destruction of vital habitats.
Mining is also poisoning local communities, as tons of mercury are used to extract the valuable commodity and scientists say that a significant amount is released into rivers or into the atmosphere.
The wells where miners look for gold appear as hundreds of basins filled with water, surrounded by mud where the vegetation was removed, explains NASA.
Miners follow the routes of old rivers where sediments, including minerals, were deposited.
In parts of the region, home to species such as monkeys, jaguars and butterflies, scientists believe that mining is the main cause of deforestation.
In January 2019, a study found that gold mining deforestation destroyed about 22,930 acres of the Peruvian Amazon in 2018, according to the Monitoring Group of the Andean Amazon Project.
Spurred on by the rising price of gold, people from local communities who are often in need see an opportunity to earn a living from mining. In 2012, there were about 30,000 small-scale miners working in the lush region.
In another part of Peru, La Pampa, a huge gold rush that lasted almost a decade was finally stopped by the government in 2019, when about 5,000 miners were expelled.