The Great Guatemalan Sinkhole
Have you ever wanted the earth to swallow you up beneath your feet? Well if you happen to live in Guatemala, that wish may sometime become a reality.
The capital, Guatemala City has a strange problem when it comes to sinkholes, and none have been as dramatic as the one that occurred on Sunday, May 30, 2010.
In the middle of the city, an enormous hole, 60 feet wide and 30 stories deep, appeared from no where and swallowed a three-story building and someones home.
The geological cause of a sinkhole is normally from underground rivers or stores of water which slowly erode the bedrock and cause the ground above to collapse.
Guatemala City on the other hand, is in the unfortunate position of being built on large deposits of weak volcano pumice. This means that the sinkholes that occur there, happen quickly and without warning.
And with the infrastructure in Guatemala as it is, filling in the holes left behind can take a very long time indeed.
