Massive Guatemala City sinkhole swallows 3 story building.

Just unreal... any word on how deep that sinkhole is? It's like something out of dune... a sandworm did it.

That third picture doesn't seem to match the location of the previous two, though.

dejo said:

That third picture doesn't seem to match the location of the previous two, though.

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I was just about to say that...
The 3rd one has no similarities in location as the first 2 pictures.
Plus, seems to clean on of a cut to be a natural disaster sink hole.

I'm familiar with sinkholes, but...I didn't realize they were so...cylindrical. It looks like it was cut.

Beware the Sarlaac.

Its a Riftworm.. The Locust are coming!

The devil's butt hole. I wouldn't want to fall in.

My deepest sympathies to anyone injured from this, but these really amaze me. They're so straight and they look carved. What causes them?
I did some looking around the internet this morning and found examples of them all over the world of different sizes and depths. Really interesting stuff.

TheNewDude said:

...seems to clean on of a cut to be a natural disaster sink hole.

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My first though also. Both the recent one and the '07 one were centered on a street. It looks like there had been an excavation there before.

Holy Dog-Sh**!!!

I'm not sure why, but seeing pictures of sinkholes always gives me the creeps.

notjustjay said:

I'm not sure why, but seeing pictures of sinkholes always gives me the creeps.

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Perhaps it is because of an innate uneasiness about them. There could be a sinkhole forming under your home, right now. The ground could be ready to collapse at any time and you would never know beforehand. There would be little warning. Sinkholes can happen almost anywhere.

Unspeaked said:

In that third shot, I think you can just make out the bottom, but I'm not sure.

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Increasing the contrast does bring out something...

Watching this from my iPad just scared me and gave me the Hibbing jibbies

I'm going to el Salvador next month.....I hope the neighborhood were I live doesn't go sinking

I believe CNN said it was around 200 ft...
Still thats pretty deep, crap. And I'm scared of heights.

Tremors baby Tremors!

I guess Kevin Bacon wasn't so stupid for making that movie!

Seriously this is frackn creeeeEEEEpy!

Was anyone in those when the building got swallowed up!?

btw, OllyW that third picture is the second one rotated just a different angle.

this CANNOT be real. Too even too cylindrical, too straight ... nature doesn't do that. that just isn't right.

From http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20100601/lt-guatemala-gaping-sinkhole/

"Geologists said Tuesday that the circular shape suggested a cave formation underneath, but what exactly caused the sinkhole was still a mystery."

Anyone else think about pissing into that thing?

One report I read talked about 3 people disappearing, all residents of a house that used to be there. Tragic.

The next question is, how do you "fix" a sinkhole. Even if that pit had a bottom, that is a lot of dirt to move and dump to fill the hole. But by definition, that pit is in effect "bottomless" ... All that dirt in the hole was carried away to somewhere else.

Instead of fixing it maybe you relocate the local residents and businesses, reinforce the sides of the hole, and open up an amusement park for thrill-seekers. Bungee jumping into the void, tightrope walking, an observation deck with a glass floor. You could build all these things without having to actually build a tower.

Best of Luck to the residents and businesses in the neighbourhood. I can not imagine living near that thing. And now I'm off to check our backyard for any suspicious subsidence issues.... it's been raining a lot here lately.

snberk103 said:

The next question is, how do you "fix" a sinkhole.

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By pissing into it, obviously. Does Abstract have to think of everything around here?

dmr727 said:

By pissing into it, obviously. Does Abstract have to think of everything around here?

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I did real quick calculation.

If the sinkhole is 66m deep and 32m across (~200ft by 100ft), and if the sinkhole was completely non-porous and had a bottom, then it would need just over 53 million litres of, um, liquid - to fill it up. Guatemala has a population of a little over 13 million people, so if every single Guatemalan in the country stood by the side and, um, contributed (recognizing that half the population have more of a challenge in the aiming of their contribution) then it would take close to 4 days of contributions to fill the hole.

OK, maybe I should be thinking getting some, you know, actual work done...