Science & Technology

Enormous sinkhole swallows up the ground in Chile

By T.K. Randall
August 7, 2022 ·  12 comments

As luck would have it, nobody was there at the time. Image Credit: SERNAGEOMIN Large enough to swallow up the entire White House, this gargantuan sinkhole opened up just outside the town of Tierra Amarilla around 400 miles to the north of the capital Santiago.

According to The National Service of Geology and Mining (Sernageomin), the hole was first spotted at the weekend on Canadian-owned land that is currently used for copper mining.

"There is a considerable distance, approximately 200 meters (656 feet), to the bottom," said the service's director David Montenegro."We haven't detected any material down there, but we have seen the presence of a lot of water."

Fortunately, the hole did not open underneath a populated area, however the local mayor has expressed concerns that if it happens again, the next time things could be a lot worse.

"Today it happened in a space that's an agricultural property, but our greatest fear now is that this could happen in a populated place, on a street, in a school," he said.

"Protecting the integrity of our inhabitants is our greatest concern at the moment."

Source: Vice.com | Comments (12)

Tags: Sinkhole