The Athabasca tar sands (detail),
Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada

The Athabasca tar sands deposit is the largest known reservoir of crude bitumen in the world. Alberta’s oil sands deposits lie under 141,000 square kilometres of boreal forest and peat bogs - an area larger than England. They contain an estimated 1.7 trillion barrels of bitumen, similar in scale to the world's total proven reserves of conventional petroleum. Its extraction is one of the largest industrial projects on the planet.
Tar sands require large amounts of water and energy to extract, making the process very environmentally damaging with a high carbon footprint and a toxic legacy, affecting land, water and air. Wild fires are also a serious consequence of tar sand extraction.

Approx area depicted: 190 km2
Date of image: 2021