Wow, That's A Gigantic Hole In The Ground

by Len Neighbors
06/21/2007

This news site has some fantastic photos of a giant sinkhole in Guatemala City. Although we can't read anything written on the page because we're American and only speak one language, we've done some poking around to figure out exactly what the giant hole is and what caused it. We're concerned that one will appear immediately beneath our office and swallow us.

One account suggest that plumbing was to blame:

Three people were missing on Friday after a 200-foot-deep (61 meters) hole opened up in the middle of a Guatemalan neighbourhood, likely due to a burst sewer pipe...

Neighbours said the ground had been shaking for weeks after a huge sewer pipe burst, making the ground underneath the houses unstable.

How big does a sewer have to be to open a 130 foot in diameter, 200 foot deep hole in the ground? Really, you won't believe this thing until you see the photos.

Other reports suggest the sinkhole was 330 feet deep. That report is from the Houston Star, so it could just be that things look bigger in Texas. The article does a nice job of making the sinkhole seem Dantescan in scope:

The pit emitted foul odors, loud noises and tremors, shaking the surrounding ground. A rush of water could be heard from its depths, and authorities feared it could widen or others could open up...

Antonio Fuentes, 50, said he plans to abandon the run-down neighborhood he has called home for 15 years.

"Last night, a friend had to take my handicapped wife out on motorcycle," he said. "Now I'm leaving for good, never to come back."

Well, Mr. Fuentes, the Earth opening up and swallowing houses seems to us a fantistic reason to move house, as we've done it over as little as inconsiderate neighbors.

Always useful, Wikipedia has some scientific information:

A sinkhole, also known as a sink, shake hole, swallow hole, swallet, doline (in the Slovene language dolina means valley) or cenote, is a natural depression or hole in the surface topography caused by the removal of soil or bedrock, often both, by water. Sinkholes may vary in size from less than a meter to several hundred meters in diameter and depth, and vary in form from soil-lined bowls to bedrock-edged chasms. They may be formed gradually or suddenly, and are found worldwide.

Apparently, the ruptures sewer pipe is a good theory. It would release a steady flow of liquid (in this case, raw sewage) that would erode dirt, mineral doposits, and sedimentary rock underneath the city, sorta like when you lick the ice cream out of the sides of an ice cream sandwich, only with sewage and dirt instead of ice cream and rich, chocolatey wafers. It wouldn't actually collapse until a large enough area was eroded that the weight of the earth and buildings on top of it became overwhelming.

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