Giant sinkhole swallows father, teens

CNN ^ | February 23, 2007 | CNN

[FreedomCalls]

GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala (AP) -- A giant sinkhole opened before dawn Friday, swallowing several homes and a truck and leaving a father and two teenagers missing in Guatemala City.

Officials said the 100-meter-deep (330-foot-deep) sinkhole in a crowded neighborhood of poor, concrete homes was caused by recent rains and an underground sewage flow from a ruptured main.

National disaster coordinator Hugo Hernandez identified the missing as Domingo, Irma and David Sosyos, ages 53, 18 and 15, respectively. A body appeared in a river of sewage near the sinkhole, but it was unclear whether the corpse was a victim. ...

The pit was emitting foul odors, loud noises and tremors, and a rush of water could be heard from its depths. Authorities feared it could widen or others could open up.

[vaudine]

I don't know about the geology, but the physics of it is explained--broken underground sewer and excessive rains=huge amounts of
dirt removal. When it reached the crucial point of excavation, the surface weight colapsed the crust into the hole.

Moral--if you hear a freight train, take cover from the tornado; if you hear unseen rushing water, get out of there ASAP.

vaudine

[keats5]

Weird, I just happen to be in Numbers 16 as part of my daily Bible reading. Here's part of my reading for yesterday. It describes the death of Korah's men after they tried to rebel against Moses. I wonder if they had sewage issues, too.

28 Then Moses said, "This is how you will know that the LORD has sent me to do all these things and that it was not my idea: 29 If these men die a natural death and experience only what usually happens to men, then the LORD has not sent me. 30 But if the LORD brings about something totally new, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them, with everything that belongs to them, and they go down alive into the grave, [c] then you will know that these men have treated the LORD with contempt."

31 As soon as he finished saying all this, the ground under them split apart 32 and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, with their households and all Korah's men and all their possessions. 33 They went down alive into the grave, with everything they owned; the earth closed over them, and they perished and were gone from the community. 34 At their cries, all the Israelites around them fled, shouting, "The earth is going to swallow us too!"

[advance_copy]

Is it possible that a meteor hit?

Exposing my utter ignorance about geology

[ShadowDancer]

I swear to God, that is the exact phrase that went through my head when I saw that.

[LibKill]

Now I have seen the hellmouth.

[Polybius]

Fascinating.. the geology that is. Can anyone here explain it? Is that natural, or is part of that 1000 years of compressed civilization?

The Yucatan and surrounding region into Guatemala is built up by limestone that dissolves with acidic runoff from rotting vegetation. This causes the region to be riddled with underground caverns like Swiss cheese.

In the Yucatan, these caverns are called "cenotes" and can be have a very thin roof between them and the ground surface. If the roof collapses, you get a sinkhole.

While there, we spent a morning swimming in Cenote Dzitnup that was illuminated by a round hole in its dome from a partial collapse.

[FreedomPoster]

Whoa! I guess it's the night for odd natural phenomena.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Quick! Plug it up with giant weights!

Help is on the way!

[Rodney King]

thanks!

[ShadowDancer]

Yeah, everything that happens poorly happens to bad people only.

[ShadowDancer]

Can I ask you something? Did you know that just off of the top of your head, so to speak?

[HighWheeler]

Here's the hole! Drop Teddy the Liquor Pig in here!

[tubebender]

Man that is a 100 holer if there ever was one!!!

[DocRock]

bookmark

[dirtboy]

Can I ask you something? Did you know that just off of the top of your head, so to speak?

NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF FREEP!

[ShadowDancer]

I don't which is why I still come here after six or so years. That is mind blowing.

[Polybius]

Can I ask you something? Did you know that just off of the top of your head, so to speak?

Yes, but just because of where I grew up and because of my travels.

I grew up in South Florida where every school kid has dissolved a piece of limestone rock he picked up in lemon juice. While tromping through the Big Cypress Swamp, you need to watch your step or you can be up to your hip in a mini-sinkhole.

As for the Yucatan and neighboring Guatemala, we spent three weeks traveling through the region two years ago and swam in the Cenote seen in the picture I posted.

The Cenotes communicate with each other through long tunnels dissolved through the limestone to form complexes like a termite mound. If one of those tunnels reaches the sea and surfaces at the sea floor, they are called "Ojos de Mar" ("Sea Eyes") and appear as sink holes on the seabed that have blurry water around them as the fresh water from the tunnel mixes with the salt water of the sea. While there, we snorkeled down to one those "Ojos de Mar" offshore of Puerto Morelos.

[Polybius]

Can I ask you something? Did you know that just off of the top of your head, so to speak?

NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF FREEP!

That's right. :-)

See Post 57.

From landing an F-14 Tomcat on a carrier to working with obscure type fonts in the early 1970's to performing surgery to swimming in a Cenote, somebody on Free Republic has been there, done that, gotten the T-Shirt and can tell you all about it off the top of their head and knows more about it than the entire CBS News Division. :-)

[ShadowDancer]

Sea Eyes. At ther risk of sounding sappy, that's beautiful.

They can actually hear each other though the land one? How long are they normally?

[blam]

Holey Moley.