When the Ground Opened and Light Poured In

On October 13, 2010, shift foreman Luis Urzúa sat 2,300 feet below the Atacama Desert in Chile, where he and thirty-two other miners had been trapped for sixty-nine days. A catastrophic rock collapse had sealed them in a space the size of a small apartment. Above ground, their families held vigil. Churches across Santiago gathered for round-the-clock prayer. Engineers drilled through solid diorite with no guarantee of success.…