More and more rural areas are being buried under concrete in a vain attempt to tackle congestion on motorways and other major routes.

ECONOMIST: Jam today, road pricing tomorrow

Federal contractors say that as long as it remains undisturbed, the soil poses no danger to people because it is buried under a concrete slab.

WSJ: Toxic Radioactive Find Adds to Hanford Cleanup Woes

Entire communities buried under mountains of concrete.

WHITEHOUSE: Presidents Obama, Bush, & Clinton: Help for Haiti

When he was alive, the concrete structure, buried four storeys underground, was air-conditioned.

ECONOMIST: A rebel stronghold becomes an unlikely tourist trap

Rather it is knowing which doors -- or more accurately, which hardened-concrete barriers protecting deeply buried covert bunkers -- have something of interest behind them.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center For Security Policy

And those estimates are of what mining companies have concrete plans to get at numbers that are significantly lower than the colossal quantities of reserves buried throughout the Earth's crust.

WSJ: Exhausting the Earth's Resources? Not So Fast