#38: Sinkhole Eats Guatemala City

Wow. TO think a gaping sinkhole standing at 100 Feet deep and 70 Feet wide can just randomly appear in the middle of a city amazes me greatly. This amazing occurrence happened in the middle of Guatemala City , and devoured at clothing factory. Sinkholes occur usually due to ground­water washign away soluble bedrock like limestone. However, Daniel Doctor of the U.S. Geological Survey says that the hole was so large due to weak underground pipes or leaky sewer lines and just the infrastructure itself A foot of rain dumped by a tropical storm probably was the final element in this catastrophe. Having such a large sinkhole in this large of a city is very uncommon!




THIS IS NOT PHOTOSHOPPED.

I agree!! I never thought a hole this big would ever exist in a city.

The scary part are those unfortunates who fell into the sinkhole! I wonder if they're still alive.
There is so much nature can do, that us human beings can not even explain why or how this sinkhole was formed, yes, the cause of this sinkhole is said to be the groundwater, but there has to be something else that reacted with the groundwater other than the porous rocks to create such a destruction.

I honestly think this is a shocking picture, I hope sinkholes like these don't just randomly appear in Edmonton, because if it did, I would not want to live in a city with random holes appearing out of no where. I mean who would want to fall in one of those holes and live a life worrying about when or where a sinkhole will be formed! who knows whats under there=/. I 'm sure there are some people who live in Guatemala City, that will eventually move out, simply cause they don't want to risk their lives in falling into one of those massive holes. However, the good thing is that it was just one sinkhole that was formed! who knows what would happen if it was a much larger hole, the whole city would probably disappear and all fall into the gigantic hole. Do you know if there are any countries helping out this damaged city?

WHAT THE @#%& ?!?
sorry I had to... lol

Woah that’s so crazy!! I read that it happened by a clothing factory, so I’m guessing that people might have been injured, hopefully there were no deaths. That’s horrible though to just have a sinkhole randomly appear and destroy everything there.

Based on the picture it looks pretty huge, I didn’t know that sinkholes could be that big in cities either, hopefully it doesn’t get any bigger. And it all happened because of poor infrastructure, I suppose it’s because Guatemala isn’t the most developed country. I’m sure that filling the sinkhole and repairing the factory is going to cost a lot of money, money that they probably don't have.

i read about this as well that's actually both interesting and frightening because this was so recent are there any tests that we can do to see how strong the ground is? like they do to predict how stable the weather will be. because to see something like that in today's society makes me imagine whats yet to come not saying i want anything tragic like this to happen again but like an interesting event kind of like this. can they go down and explore the sink hole or like send something down there to help the people who fell of even see if there alive? that's astonishing thanks for the post!

hows a guy supposed to cross the street now???

LOL mark nice.

Josh i do agree that they should go check but sending a person down there would be veryyyy unsafe. So like you said maybe send something else down there, maybe a rover or like robot thing. But do you think a person could survive a drop of 100 feet? Its really unlikely.

Ashley Yeah i was sooo surprised the first time i read the article and astounded by the pic. I did not even know this sort of thing is possible, I would be sooooo freaked out if i lived in Guatemala, cause who knows when or where another sinkhole could appear. And to think there that big, that they could take up a whole factory and a street.

yeah if i was there i wouldnt feel too safe about the place but then again the people there are not educated as well as in north america so its hard to explain to them how and what happened everyone would be at a high stage of confusion and fear.

Even if i did not understand what was going on, Fear itself would be the greatest factor for me to get the hell away from that city haha. I don't wwanna end up 100 feet in the earth.

Just looking at that picture scares me. Realistically no one is going to surive a 100 foot drop with a roof coming down on them just incase they do. I certainly wouldnt want to be the poor soul trapped 100 feet below the earth in complete darkness for a few days until rescue

yeah i agree with talor that would be the worst. The approximate amount of days that you could go without water in your intake is anywhere from eight to fourteen days. and that would mean a large amount of suffering before you die if you survived the fall. very interesting post keep it up bud!

I would not enjoy staying under dirt and roof, but we have not taken account of the oxygen levels down there. If your buried in a building and dirt, no oxygen could get through. So you could possibly suffocate to death.

When I first saw the image I completely thought that it was photoshopped. I can't believe that anything like that would actaully happen and it's scary to think that the ground can basically just collapse like that. It's sad to think that this actually happenign around the world and i really hope it doesn't ever happen again. This is SOOO scary to think about. I guess it shows you how strong nature actually is.

I`d say it be about 24 hours before humans finally got down there to rescue people, if they did happened to get trapped. However it is unlikely that one would survive the initial fall, but if one did, then i could see them getting out alive easily - assuming that oxygen is available. Wouldnt that be a story to tell..

falling in that hole would be arguably one of the scariest ways to die. It would be like in 300 when gerard butler kicks that guy in the hole and its soooooooo dramatic. Maybe we should have gotten that scene on the wall in the gym instead, it would be way more fearsome

hahaha good reference mark lol honestly i think this would just mess me up for life id be thinking about falling in a random sinkhole 24/7 however i do think it would be cool to learn more about them and i really wanna know whats down there! remember that story about the crystal cave??? what if its something as cool as that!!!

What crystal cave????

And yeah i was really curious about what would be down there! Like is it all just mud everywhere. Is there different rock and minerals? Is it like WAYYY HOTTER cause its closer to the equator? or colder cause its farther from the suns rays?

I wannaaa know!

HAHAHAHAHAHHAAHAHAHA simrit i think it would be hotter because its closer to the earths core haha not because of the equator HAHAHA
and there is a crystal cave it looks like superman's fortressbut its deep beneath the surface of the earth is one of the greatest natural structure on the planet: a giant crystal cave with crystals up to 36 feet long and weighing 55 tons. But this scorching cavern could kill humans after just 15 minutes of exposure. i recommend you serch it up its an old article though very intresting!!

and simrit the earths core is crazy hot thats why people have the geothermal heat going through there homes it comes from the heat given off by the earths core.

THATS WHAT I MEANT LOLLL I meant to say the core. My bad!


And seriously ? Like supermans fortress? mhmmmmm

I remember watching a documentary on this!!!
i dont know if its the same one, but liek the guys would have to keep getting oxygen and wearing these suits and only could go far enough until they start to feel somesort of faint... and thwen they would have to get the hell out. so I am guessing tis the same.

But yeah i think that would be so cool to even be apart of somehting like that! just to go see this cave i would be so amazed!

HAHA all good man
and yeah i think were talkin about the same thing but i dont think that picture is accurate like it actually looks like supermans fortress with the ice crystals shooting up and in weired angles!

I just thought the pic looked cool

Hey i wonder if the crystals are hot or are cold?

all i know is that it would suck if u feel on one of those
i seen that documenary on these cyrstal caves and man the ways all these crystals were formed is unreal. but i would think that it would be cold down thier because if it was hot everything would start to lose it shape, i would like to know aswell

Wouldnt it be hotter cause it's closer to the core ? Core is hottest place on earth sopoo

As you decend towards the Earth's core, its obvious that the temp rises but I'd imagine this can't be too deep into the ground compared to how far the earths core actually is from the surface. It would not be too far out of the question to say that there are random spots under the ground where the temp is cold and perhaps these crystals form. Just my opinion

this actually a mystery because it should be hotter at the core but then how does these ice crystals stay their shape, like look at them their massive. everybody especially in edmonton she tiny icicles but it minus 40 outside so the situation fits. taylor you might be right that some areas are colder than others under grown, but who knows. i still do not understand how these cyrstals can become this massive undergrown
maybe i should ask clintberg maybe he knows