Welcome to Histories Not Boring by Kidopoly.com. I'm Mira. And I'm Finn. Before we start, we have a massive shout-out today. This episode is a special request from a very awesome listener named Carmen. Hi Carmen, where is she from? Carmen is eight years old and she lives in Santiago, Chile. She wrote in with three brilliant ideas for episodes and asked for a shout-out. So this one is completely dedicated to you, Carmen. Thanks for the amazing ideas, Carmen. We love hearing from our listeners. We sure do. Okay Finn, I want you to imagine something wild. Imagine being trapped almost as deep underground as the tallest building in the world is tall. No way! That sounds so scary. How deep are we talking? We're talking about being trapped 2,300 feet straight down, in the pitch black, for 69 days. 69 days? That's over two whole months! I can barely sit still for a two-hour car ride. Well, you would definitely need to sit still for this. Today we are talking about one of the most incredible, jaw-dropping survival stories in human history, the 2010 Chilean Mine Rescue. Wait, how did they get stuck down there? And how did they possibly get out? Grab your hard hat and your flashlight, Finn. We're heading deep into the Atacama Desert to find out. Where exactly is the Atacama Desert? Is it just a bunch of sand? It's in northern Chile in South America, and it is actually the driest non-polar desert on Earth. Some parts of it are so dry they haven't seen a single drop of rain in hundreds of years. Whoa! So what were people doing out in a giant desert? On August 5th, 2010, dozens of men were working at the San Jose mine. It was a commercial copper and gold mine that was over 100 years old. How deep were they digging for the gold? They were working about 700 metres down, which is about 2,300 feet underground. 2,300 feet? I can't even picture that. How deep is that? Picture the Empire State Building in New York City. If you stacked nearly two of those massive skyscrapers on top of each other, that is how deep this mine was. How do the miners even get down there every day? Is there a giant super fast elevator? No, there was a long, spiralling dirt road called the ramp. It twisted around and around into the earth. The road was five miles long and it took a heavy mining truck, almost a full hour, just to drive to the bottom. That is a long way from the surface. What went wrong? Around 2 pm, the miners suddenly heard a sound like thunder echoing through the tunnels. Then, a massive shockwave knocked people off their feet. Was it an earthquake? The mine was collapsing from the inside. A single solid block of rock broke loose and crashed down into the main shaft, completely sealing the tunnel. How big was the rock? Like a house. Much bigger. The rock was as tall as a 45-story building and weighed 700,000 tons. That is heavier than 10 ocean liners combined. And the miners were trapped underneath it. Amazingly, none of the 33 men were crushed by the falling rock. But the ramp was completely blocked off, and the rock dust was so thick they couldn't even see their own hands for hours. They had a leader. Their shift foreman, a 54-year-old man named Luis Urzua, immediately took charge of the situation. He gathered everyone in a reinforced safety room called the Refugio, which means refuge. Was it nice in there? Did they have beds? Not at all. It was a rocky room, about 500 square feet in size. That's the size of a very small apartment, but they had to fit 33 grown men inside. Plus, it was sweltering hot, around 93 degrees Fahrenheit, and incredibly sticky with humidity. Did they have enough supplies to wait for help? The refuge was only stocked with enough emergency food for 48 hours. Urzua knew they might be trapped for a very long time, so he locked up the food cabinet and strictly rationed everything out. What is a ration? How much did they actually get to eat? A devastatingly tiny amount. Every 48 hours, each man received just two small bites of canned tuna, a single sip of milk, and a tiny piece of a cracker. Every two days, I would be starving to death. They were starving, Finn. They had to drink nasty groundwater from the mine just to stay hydrated. They also used the battery of a trapped truck to charge their helmet lights so they wouldn't be in total terrifying darkness. That sounds like a nightmare. Did anyone up above know they were still alive? Nobody knew. For 17 long, agonising days, the families prayed while engineers drilled six-inch-wide holes deep into the ground, blindly trying to find the shelter. Many of the drill holes missed completely. What if they missed again? On August 22nd, everything changed. A drill finally cracked right through the roof of their tunnel. The miners heard the spinning drill bit and ran to it. They grabbed the drill. They tapped on the metal and taped a little note to it. When the rescuers pulled the drill back up 2,300 feet to the surface, they found a piece of paper with bright red writing. What did the note say? It said, Estamos bien en el refugio los 303, which translates to, we are well in the shelter, the 33 of us. Oh my gosh, they were all alive! That is the best news ever. The whole world went completely wild when they saw that note. But finding them was only step one. Now the country of Chile had to figure out how to pull 33 men up through 2,300 feet of solid, heavy rock. Could they just pull them up through that little drill hole with a rope? No way. The hole was only six inches wide. A human head wouldn't even fit through that. But they used it to send down long plastic tubes called palomas, which means doves in Spanish. Oh, what did they send inside the doves? Everything to keep them alive: food, fresh water, medicine, clean clothes, and letters from their families. But to actually rescue them, they had to drill a massive new shaft. How long would it take to drill a hole big enough for a person? Experts warned it might take until Christmas. They set up three massive, separate drilling woods called Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C to race against each other through the rock. Which one won the race? Plan B. A giant shram T-130 drill managed to cut a hole 28 inches wide. At the exact same time, the Chilean Navy and NASA engineers worked together to design a special rescue capsule called the Phoenix or Phoenix. What did the Phoenix look like? Was it like an elevator? It looked like a sleek metal rocket ship, painted red, white and blue to match the Chilean flag. It was 13 feet tall, but incredibly skinny, just 21.5 inches across. 21 and a half inches? I would be completely squished in there. It was very tight. Inside it was packed with an oxygen mask, a microphone to talk to the surface, and a heavy-duty harness. Finally, on October 12th, the escape hole was completely finished. It's time. Who went first? I would be so scared. A very brave rescue worker went down first to check the tunnel and explain the capsule to the men. Then a 31-year-old miner named Florencio Avalos strapped himself in. Was he nervous? Definitely. The capsule slowly winched him up through the dark, bumpy rock tunnel. It took about 15 minutes of holding his breath as the metal scraped against the rock walls. Did he make it out into the air? He burst onto the surface into the cool night air and his family rushed forward to hug him. Over the next 22 hours, the Phoenix capsule was carefully lowered and raised, rescuing all 33 men. Wow. Who was the very last one? Luis Ursula, the brilliant leader who kept his men alive and hopeful. After exactly 69 days underground, he was the final man pulled to safety. I still can't believe they all made it. Did a lot of people watch it happen? Oh, it was a massive global event. Over one billion people watched the rescue live on their televisions and computers. That was roughly one out of every seven people on Earth at the time. Wow, that is like watching the World Cup or the Super Bowl, but way more important because it's real life. Exactly. And up on the surface, the families of the 33 miners never gave up either. They set up a huge camp full of tents, cooking fires and flags. And they called it Campamento Esperanza, which translates to Camp Hope. Wait, earlier you mentioned NASA helped. What did space engineers do for a mine rescue? Well, astronauts are the ultimate experts at living in tiny, isolated places for months at a time. NASA sent a highly skilled team of doctors and engineers to Chile. They designed special clothing for the miners that wicked away sweat, and they even planned their daily exercises. They did jumping jacks in a cave. Actually, they ran. Once they had better air, they had a couple miles of open tunnel, so some of the men jogged every single day to stay healthy and fit enough to squeeze into the tight Phoenix capsule. Were they blinded by the sun when they finally got out? That is a fantastic question. Their eyes hadn't seen any natural sunlight in over two solid months. Rescuers gave them special super dark sunglasses to wear the moment they reached the surface, so their retinas wouldn't be damaged by the light. That is so cool! They must have looked like action movie stars stepping out of that pod. They truly were heroes. And here is my absolute favourite fact of the entire story. While a miner named Ariel Ticona was trapped underground, his wife went into the hospital and gave birth to their baby girl on September 14th. No way! Did he get to see her face? Yes! They recorded a video of the baby and sent it down the 2,300-foot hole in one of the plastic doves. And guess what they named the beautiful baby girl? What? Esperanza, which is the Spanish word for hope. That is the best, most perfect ending ever. Alright, Finn, it is quiz time. Let's see how much you remember about this incredible rescue. Okay, I'm ready. Hit me with the facts. First question. What country were the miners trapped in? Next one. Exactly how many miners were trapped underground? Question three. How many days were the miners trapped in total? Here's number four. What three things did they survive on for the first 17 days? Last question. What was the name of the rescue capsule? Great job! Let's see how you did. The first answer is they were trapped in the country of Chile. For question two, there were thirty three miners trapped. Number three, the answer is they were trapped for sixty-nine days. Question four. They survived on tiny bites of tuna, a sip of milk, and a tiny piece of a cracker. And the final answer is the rescue capsule was named for Phoenix, or Phoenix in Spanish. What a story! I still cannot believe they survived 69 days down there. It just shows how incredible people can be when they work together and never give up. The leadership of Luis Ozua saved all their lives. And the engineers who built that tiny Phoenix capture were super smart. They really were. Hey listeners, if you loved learning about the amazing rescue of the 33 Chilean miners, please leave us a five-star review. Yeah, be a hero like the rescue team and tap those five stars. Just scroll down on your podcast app and tap the stars. Oh, and don't forget to head over to our site, kidopoly.com. We've got tons of fun learning games and cool history activities there. It's like a digital playground. And if you want to shout out on the show or just want to say hi, email us at hello at kidopoly.com. Thanks for hanging out with us today, time travellers. See you next time on History's Not Boring. Bye, everyone.