Scary huge sinkhole opens up in Guateamala

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draconian

Newcomer
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37444857/displaymode/1176/rstry/37445745/

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/06/100601-sinkhole-in-guatemala-2010-world-science/

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2010/06/guatemalas_sinkhole_staggers_m.html

guatemala-sinkhole.jpg


hi-res version here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gobiernodeguatemala/4657053554/sizes/o/in/set-72157624035870825/
 
Yeah, my wife actually remembered there was one in 2007 as well. Pretty weird huh? As they say in the national geographic article, filling it up will take quite some time ... maybe just cement the floors a few meters thick and then use it for an underground storage facilty. Saves you a few mountains of waste ...
 
I just saw that picture on a news website I visit
It looks unreal, like someones photoshopped it on
 
That sinkhole's just freakishly bizarre... Holy crap! There must be some kind of underground river that washed away the soil underneath...

I bet many in the surrounding blocks are wondering what other surprises lie in store underneath their feet, especially as this has happened before in that area! They better call in some geologists to do some extensive seismic surveying, or else more people might get killed some day.
 
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John Reynolds said:
What geological forces cause the edges to look so smooth? Because it looks like it was drilled by a giant laser.
Click to expand...

Normally it's because black-water pipes or subterranean water-channels are cracking from the mass of water (of from the desolate state, don't rember ;) ). We had 400mm in 24 hours or something, it's hard to talk in the house sometimes ... you have to raise your voice.
Last year (Ida) one opened on a main-street and ate a car. It wasn't really deep (just ~5-6 meters), but had big volume. The fotos they took from inside looked a bit like from cave-tours.

Saludos de El Salvador
 
John Reynolds said:
What geological forces cause the edges to look so smooth? Because it looks like it was drilled by a giant laser.
Click to expand...

These things tend towards circular. In these particular cases there is effectively an underground river generally cause by leaking/broken pipe. The water ends up eating away at a soluble rock and the hole underneath starts. Once you add in saturation level rains the surrounding and covering earth falls down. Then the earth above that, then the earth above that until there isn't enough structure to hold up the surface and it collapses down. In this case its likely that the rock on the outside is either thicker, less soluble, or denser which prevents the whole from going further and further out. Almost all the deep sink whole look like that though regardless of location.

The more common case is graduated concave collapse. The cylindrical collapse is overall quite rare.
 
Reminds me of the emergence in the crossroad in war of the worlds (Spielberg version)
 
Malo said:
Reminds me of the emergence in the crossroad in war of the worlds (Spielberg version)
Click to expand...
Just an aside -- I actually LIKED that movie quite a lot. It was creepy as hell IMO (and not because Tom Cruise's in it), and the aliens did seem fairly convincingly alien actually with regards to their general psychology, and so on.
 
Look on the bright side, they now have a great place to throw their garbage. I'm sure that would take centuries to fill up :LOL:
 
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