Gigantic sinkhole in Guatemala

[Jeremy]

Once upon a time, I was digging to a broken water main. Four or five feet down the dirt floor collapsed into a hole that the leak had washed out. It was about a shovel length deep (I hope) and only the first few feet were water, the rest was just a quick sand solution. I was able to scramble out before the ground I stood on caved in.

Those leaks create a quick sand pit a lot in central Florida and I've lost several washers, clamps, and bits of pipe into them, never being able to dig them out after stopping the leak.

I've seen a sinkhole, perfectly cylindrical, like this about a yard across inside a retention pond and 20 to 30 feet deep. The bottom was dry sand but had additional tunnels running horizontally at the base--that can't be good for the aquifer.

It would be neat to photoshop some goblin creatures into the bottom of one of these.

[Big Phil]

That's one massive sinkhole.

And if Guatemala gets sinkholes like this on a semi-regular basis, they really, really, really need to do a geological survey, at the very least.

Appealing for UN help to fill in those massive underground caves (or at least shore them up), would also be called for.


And, mandatory wise ass reply:
"Okay, I know we were testing the Orbital Ray Gun, and the test was successful, but I want to know, who entered the wrong co-ordinates!"

The government doesn't have much money, what they do have goes to fund the military, line the pockets of politicians (I would say corrupt, but the reality is that they're pretty much all corrupt), and pay for extremely basic levels of emergency services (police, fire, ambulance) and infrastructure.

They don't have the money to pay for a geological survey of Guatemala City... unless you're volunteering your services.

[JME2]

Holy shit, that's a big sinkhole...

[Themightytom]

I feel like someone should pop down that thing and look around. Wouldn't that region be full of stuff that got sucked down sinkholes?

like...