The most terrible big holes in the ground. The biggest holes on earth The biggest hole in the world
Since we already had it today, let’s continue it a little. Do you think what is in the photograph is real or drawn? Many of my friends already know the answer to this question, but I just came across this photo again and I once again decided to dot all the i’s and at the same time make a note about it in my blog.
Let's jump under the cut and answer all the questions...
Clickable 3880 px
Many on the Internet doubted that this was true. They tried to appeal to the very smooth edges of this hole, to the suspicious regular circle, to insufficiently correct transitions of the earth into the darkness of the depths, etc. But everything in the photographs was in reality.
A hole of almost perfect circular shape with a diameter of about 20 meters and 30 meters deep. It was formed in July 2010 in one of the districts of Guatemala City.
In the place where you see a huge crater, the bottom of which is not visible even from a helicopter, there once stood a three-story garment factory building.
The mysterious crater was cordoned off by police, and geologists were working on the site. Experts clearly cannot understand the cause of the funnel. It is worth noting that a little more than three years ago, literally two kilometers from this place, an almost similar “black hole” had already formed in the ground. However, one of the reasons could be tropical storm Agatha. Such floods and landslides have not been seen in this region for the last 60 years. The disaster destroyed roads and bridges, rivers overflowed their banks, and many areas were cut off from the outside world.
“I can tell you what was not the reason: it is not the fault of geology and it was not caused by an earthquake. That's all we know at the moment, and we will be forced to go inside," said David Monteroso, a geophysical engineer with the National Emergency Management Agency.
Meanwhile, scientists agree that the round shape of the funnel suggests the presence of a karst cavity underneath. While geologists are puzzling over the causes of the “crater”, many local residents, whose houses are located in close proximity to the “black hole”, are already trying to change their housing.
It is not clear why there is no footage of the study of this funnel on the Internet, well, it wouldn’t be interesting for anyone to go down there with a camera. Or at least lower a camera with a spotlight on a cable and film what is there at depth.
This is the same hurricane that could have caused this crater to appear.
In seven days, residents of Guatemala and neighboring Honduras and El Salvador had to deal with a volcanic eruption spewing tons of ash, a powerful tropical storm, floods and landslides, and a terrifying black hole that swallowed up a small factory and an intersection in Guatemala City. The Pacaya volcano began spewing lava and rocks on Thursday, May 27, blanketing Guatemala in ash that forced the closure of the airport. One television reporter, who was at that moment near the volcano, died. Two days later, as Guatemalans were cleaning up the ashes, Tropical Storm Agatha hit the region, bringing with it floods and landslides that washed away bridges, filled villages with mud and caused a giant hole to form in the center of Guatemala's capital.
A woman stands in the mud after a landslide caused by Hurricane Agatha in Amatitlán's El Pedregal district on May 31. On Monday, stunned Hurricane Agatha victims and rescue workers began finding bodies in the mud. In total, according to the latest data, 179 people have died in Central America. (REUTERS/Daniel LeClair)
Lava flows from the Pacaya volcano, near the capital of Guatemala, on May 28. Pacaya began to erupt on Thursday, May 27, killing journalist Anibal Archila, who was reporting for local TV channel Noti7. (REUTERS/Daniel LeClair)
Cameraman Byron Sesaida gives his side of the story after he was rescued from the Pacaya volcano on May 27. Byron worked with journalist Anibal Archila, who died while filming a program about a volcanic eruption for the Noti7 television channel. (REUTERS/Daniel LeClair)
A man displays volcanic ash cleared from his car on May 27 in Villa Nueva, after a powerful eruption of the Pacaya volcano, 50 km south of Guatemala. (JOHAN ORDONEZ/AFP/Getty Images)
Villagers came out of their homes fearing further eruptions from the Pacaya volcano in Las Calderas, Guatemala. (JOHAN ORDONEZ/AFP/Getty Images)
Two men watch a huge wave on May 29 at the port of San Jose, 110 km south of Quatemala. The season's first tropical storm, named Agatha, hit the country, bringing with it heavy rainfall, causing landslides and flooding. (JOHAN ORDONEZ/AFP/Getty Images)
People climb onto a bridge after part of it was washed away following Hurricane Agatha in Barberene on May 30. (REUTERS/Daniel LeClair)
An Amatitlán resident and Asus employee dumps dirt he removed from his home after the Mico River overflowed its banks on June 1. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
A woman crosses a road flooded with muddy water after the Mico River overflows its banks in Amatitlan on June 11. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
People inspect a car destroyed by a landslide in the Palin region, Escuintla department, Guatemala. (JOHAN ORDONEZ/AFP/Getty Images)
Maria del Carmen de Ramirez watched as the crater was born. She was at home when the fatal downpour began - by the way, meteorologists claim that more than 30 centimeters of precipitation fell in 30 hours, and she barely managed to escape from her home. “I saw through the window how the garment factory next door had disappeared,” she says. “She just disappeared.” Maria del Carmen claims that it is simply a miracle that none of the factory workers were injured: working hours ended exactly an hour before the storm. And the watchman, who is usually on duty at night, took the day off to visit relatives. “During the day, hundreds of students came to the factory to get their uniforms,” she says. “If the rain had started a few hours earlier, it would have turned into a big tragedy.”
Residents of the surrounding houses are still afraid to return. Those who did not leave their homes live in constant fear that their house could end up at the bottom of a hole in an instant. “At night I wake up every ten minutes,” says one local resident. “I’m frightened by every rustle - it seems to me that it’s rain drumming on the roof.”
Experts were never able to determine the exact cause of the hole. Geologists say that the porous structure of limestone - the main component of the soil in Ciudad Nueva - received year after year rainwater, gradually enlarging the holes. And the rain worked as a catalyst. The management of a local cement plant proposed mixing volcanic ash from the Pacaya volcano, which had erupted four days earlier, with cement and filling the crater with the resulting mass. Experts estimate that it will take 12 to 18 months to fill the well.
It should be noted that something similar has already happened in Guatemala. In February 2007, a similar failure arose in the same city, but 100 meters deep. The distance between the two failures is several kilometers. One can only imagine how the people living in this area of Guatemala feel.
By the way, that hole...
By the way, the Guatemalan sinkhole is far from the only one in the world. More than twenty years ago, a similar hole suddenly appeared in Winter Park in Florida - its depth exceeded 98 meters. In 1994, a huge well with smooth edges appeared in Mulberry, the same state of Florida, at the site of industrial waste dumping. In April this year, ten craters appeared one after another in the Chinese city of Yongbin, Sichuan Province. The depth of the largest hole was 80 meters
There was room for creativity here for photoshoppers too!
Well, in general, if you are confused by an exactly round hole, then here are other similar, albeit not so huge, examples.
A beautiful crater on the highway near the capital of Venezuela, Caracas, December 1, 2010.
Outside the small town of Schmalkalden, in the German state of Thuringia, a huge crater suddenly formed. Local residents woke up in the middle of the night to the roar of car sirens. It turned out that a car had fallen into a hole 40 meters wide and 25 meters deep, and it was only by luck that no one was hurt.
Police and rescue services immediately arrived at the scene. who cordoned off a giant crater. Residents of nearby houses were urgently evacuated.
“The ground literally opened up under our feet at about three o’clock in the morning. If this had happened during the day, it is unlikely that casualties would have been avoided. We have already announced that until the reasons are fully clarified natural disaster people will have to temporarily leave the city. Local authorities are ready to provide them with shelter,” the police said. Bild writes about this.
A helicopter was brought in to survey the area, which, with the help of detailed photography, will allow us to determine the real size of the crater. According to preliminary data, the collapse of the soil could have occurred due to the fact that intensive salt mining was once carried out here. Probably, groundwater gave impetus to the formation of a dangerous landslide.
In the city of Berezniki in 2007, a giant sinkhole formed on the territory of one of the enterprises: 15 meters deep and an area of two and a half thousand square meters. The ground collapse occurred in an industrial area where salt mines are located underground. In dangerous proximity there is a salt factory and a local thermal power plant. Just a kilometer away are residential buildings.
On November 25, 2003, in the center of Lisbon (Portugal), a parked bus suddenly began to go underground. The reason for this was a deep hole that formed in the roadway.
Another hole on the road in Changchun city in Jilin province, May 29, 2011. A truck went underground.
This hole in the Earth was formed in June 2010 in Hunan province, its dimensions are: diameter - 150 meters, depth - 50 meters. The reasons for its appearance are unclear.
On September 7, 2008, a large sinkhole (15 meters in diameter and 5 meters deep) appeared in the city of Guangzhou in Guangdong Province.
It is the largest diamond quarry in the Republic of Yakutia, and according to some sources - in the whole world, and contains a quarter of the world's diamond reserves. With a diameter of 1200 meters, it goes 515 meters into the ground, narrowing at the base to 50 meters.
Giant Blue Hole, Belize
This is an underwater vertical cave with a diameter of approximately 300 meters and a depth of 120 meters. It was once part of a system of limestone caves on the surface of the earth. But as a result of the melting of ice, the waters of the ocean rose, which led to the flooding of caves and the formation of a karst funnel in the shape of a pointed shell.
Bingham Canyon Copper Mine, USA
The copper mine, located in Utah near Salt Lake City, is the largest of its kind on the entire planet. Copper mining is carried out in an open-pit manner; the quarry is a giant hole in earth's crust 1.2 kilometers deep and 4 kilometers wide. The area of the pit on the surface is 7.7 sq. km, and its size increases every year.
Diavik Diamond Mine, Canada
The Diavik quarry, located in the Canadian province near Yellowknife, is one of the largest open-pit diamond mines in the world. Its depth is 525 meters and its diameter is about 1200 meters. The mine produces about 20 thousand carats, that is, about 4 kilograms, of diamonds every day.
Monticello Dam, USA
The Monticello Dam in the US state of California is famous for its unique hydraulic overflow. There is a large concrete pipe installed in the middle of Lake Berryessa, into which water flows if the surface level of the reservoir changes. Previously, there was a city of the same name here, but during the construction of a dam on the lake, it was flooded and is now located at its very bottom.
Big Hole kimberlite pipe, South Africa
This is a huge, now inactive, diamond mine located in the city of Kimberley in South Africa. The “Big Hole” is considered the largest mine developed by people “by hand”, without the use of technology. When the mine was active, its depth was 240 meters. Now it is gradually filling with water. In its place 100 million years ago there was a volcanic crater.
Karst sinkhole in Guatemala
A huge karst sinkhole occurred in Guatemala after tropical storm Agatha. The hole completely swallowed the three-story building of a garment factory. Its dimensions were about 20 meters, and its origin was explained by the process of washing away soil and bedrock by water.
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The creations of nature always fascinate, especially if they are objects of gigantic proportions. There are huge holes in the earth's crust of simply incredible size. However, their authorship does not always belong to nature; a large man-made hole can also cause a shock to others.
Quarry in Yakutia
Scientists cannot give an exact answer about the nature of the origin of most giant natural holes. The spectacle is as impressive as it is dangerous. The abyss can open up almost anywhere, swallowing up houses, cars, and people. Here are the most famous holes of various origins.
Yakutia has one of the largest quarries on the planet. Its dimensions are more than 0.5 km in depth and almost one and a half kilometers in diameter. The quarry was given a name - the Mir kimberlite pipe. It was opened in the 50s of the twentieth century and worked until 2001. All this time, kimberlite ore, which is rich in diamonds, was mined here using an open-pit method. Today, it is unprofitable to extract the remaining ore reserves using open-pit methods, so underground mines have been built. Large holes in the ground can be created by human hands.
Other man-made holes
The largest man-made quarry on the planet is the Kennecott Bingham Canyon Mine. It is located in Utah. In the quarry, mining is carried out in an open way. The width of the mine is almost 8 km, and the depth reaches four kilometers. The quarry was opened in 1863, mining continues today, so its size is constantly increasing.
In Canada, there is a quarry on the islands where diamonds are mined. It's called Diavik. All the necessary infrastructure, and even an airport, grew around it.
The largest quarry, which was created by man without the use of special equipment, is located in South Africa. The big hole was once a diamond mining site. The parameters of this mine along the perimeter are about 1.5 km, and in width - more than 460 meters. Now this mine is a means of attracting tourists to the city. The giant hole, called the Big Hole, is striking in its dimensions.
Local attractions
There are Dam's in northern California. In the reservoir of the dam there is a funnel through which water is drained. The depth of the funnel is more than 21 meters, its upper part in diameter is 21 meters, and the lower part is 8.5 meters. Through such a giant drain they release from the reservoir excess water supply. A large hole can easily become a local landmark. People love to visit places that are terrifying in their scale.
In Guatemala, a huge formation was formed, provoked by heavy rains and rising groundwater levels. According to eyewitnesses, a few days before the formation of the crater, local residents heard a rumble from underground and felt shifts in the soil. As a result of the tragedy, people died and more than ten houses were destroyed.
The Great Blue Hole is located in Lighthouse Reef Atoll. In essence, this is a karst depression up to 120 meters deep and more than 300 meters across. The discoverer of this funnel was the famous scientist Jacques-Yves Cousteau. The nature of the formation of a blue hole has been scientifically explained. During ice age this relief looked like a system of limestone caves. Over time, when the sea level rose significantly, the caves were flooded, and its vaults, consisting of porous limestone, collapsed. The Blue Hole is one of the top ten places for scuba diving.
Holes of unknown origin
Holes in the ground appear both in desert areas and in areas that are densely populated by people. Unfortunately, the appearance of such faults often leads to tragic casualties. Here are some of these cases of holes appearing in the ground:
- In 2010, a huge round sinkhole appeared in Guatemala, destroying a garment factory. The reason for the appearance of such a fault was storm rains. Of course, the Great Blue Hole is larger in scale, but these formations also cause horror among the local population.
- In New Zealand, the abyss opened up to a depth of fifteen and a width of fifty meters. The house fell into the hole, along with the family in it. Miraculously, no casualties were avoided. The cause was the collapse
Funnels on the territory of the Middle Kingdom
In 2010, a large hole opened up right in the middle of a road in China. Due to soil shifts, the hospital was destroyed some time later.
In 2012, also in China, a hole appeared on the road, into which a large truck fell. The driver managed to avoid falling into the abyss due to the fact that the cabin remained on the surface, and only the trailer was hanging in the hole.
In 2013, a large hole up to 20 meters across appeared in a Chinese rice plantation in Huan Province. In less than six months, about twenty such sinkholes appeared in this area. It turned out that industrial activity in the area had disrupted the groundwater balance, which led to the formation of holes.
Huge holes in the ground can be a beautiful sight if they are in wildlife. Such places often become tourist attractions. But the holes that appear as a result human activity, can be extremely dangerous. Therefore, when carrying out his industrial activities, a person must always think about the consequences to which it may lead.
The kimberlite pipe is the largest diamond quarry located in Yakutia. One fourth of all diamonds in the world are mined here.
The Mir quarry is one of the deepest on our planet.
The dimensions of the quarry in its upper diameter are 1200 m, the lower - 50 m. The depth of the Kimberlite pipe is 515m.
No helicopters fly over the quarry: this funnel is capable of sucking even aircraft from space.
There is a legend in the national Yakut folklore that one day God got frostbite on his hand while flying over Yakutia in the very cold. From his frozen hands he dropped a bag of gifts, which scattered across the mountains, tundra and river valleys.
In 2001, diamond mining at the Kimberlite pipe was stopped - the Mir quarry became very deep and dangerous for workers. Now the Kimberlite Pipe is a local landmark. Installed here observation decks and a memorial sign.
The last explosion over the quarry occurred in 2001. 41 thousand explosive and 100 thousand tons of diamond ore - these are the results of the final mining.
“We lit a pipe of peace. “The tobacco is excellent,” - in 1955, Soviet geologists reported to Moscow in a secret radiogram about the discovery of the richest diamond-bearing kimberlite pipe “Mir”. “We didn’t have a special code for this case,” recalled the head of the geological party, Yuri Khabardin. – And we composed the text in such a way that it was clear what we found – we “lit a pipe” and gave it a name – “Peace”. The phrase “excellent tobacco” spoke of the rich diamond content.”
It was a find of utmost importance. It was believed that the use of diamond tools doubled the economic potential of the state, and the USSR had been in need of industrial diamonds since the 1930s, after industrialization began in the country.
In February 1957, the first convoys began to arrive in the village of Mirny, which arose near the field. To get here, they had to overcome 2800 km of off-road terrain. The deserted region of Yakutia began to quickly become populated. Soon the first bucket of ore was mined from the Mir pipe, and already in the early 1960s, more than $1 billion worth of diamonds were mined in the USSR annually. The village of Mirny became the center of the Soviet diamond mining industry. Now it is a city with a population of 40 thousand people.
It is generally accepted that diamonds crystallized under enormous pressure deep in the bowels of the Earth - in the mantle, and were subsequently brought to the surface from a depth of 150–600 km. Kimberlite pipes are the channels left behind from such an outburst (kimberlite is the complex igneous rock that fills these channels). True, there are hypotheses suggesting that diamonds were not formed in the depths of the Earth, but at the moment they were released to the surface as a kind of “soot” from burning methane. But no matter what diamonds are - “methane soot” or “graphite stamping” - the enormous profitability of their extraction forces a person to dig into the depths of the earth, leaving traces comparable only to the result of the fall of a giant meteorite.
Kimberlite channels really resemble either a gigantic smoking pipe with a straight stem, or a giant martini glass - a cone on a thin stem that goes to great depths. Today, the outer diameter of the Mir mine pit is 1,200 m. Recently, huge trucks “wound” along a spiral road 8 km from the bottom to the surface, removing precious ore from a hole half a kilometer deep. Now open-pit mining has been stopped, and the mine is being mothballed for preparation of underground mining of deeper horizons - since it has been explored that the depth of diamonds in Mir exceeds a kilometer.
This is the largest diamond mining quarry on the planet, where the most complex problems of draining mineralized groundwater, so-called brines, typical of all Yakut deposits, have been successfully solved. The waters arrive at a speed of 3.5 thousand cubic meters per day, and would inevitably flood the mine if not for unique drainage technologies.
Kimberlite pipe "Big Hole" (South Africa). The largest one dug by hand is 1097 meters deep. More than 22 million tons of rock were moved to the surface. and 3 tons of diamonds were mined. Development was completed in 1914.
Kennecott Quarry. Utah. The largest active open-pit mine in the world, copper mining began in 1863 and is still ongoing. Approximately a kilometer deep and 3.5 wide.
Diavik Quarry, Canada. Diamonds are mined. The quarry is located on the islands and has its own infrastructure with an airport capable of receiving passenger Boeings.
Great Blue Hole, Belize. Width 400 meters, depth 145 - 160 meters. A point of attraction for professional divers from all over the world.
Drain hole in the Monticello Dam reservoir. Serves to discharge excess water in the reservoir reservoir. A kind of safety valve.
Karst sinkhole in Guatemala. Called groundwater and rain. During the formation of the sinkhole, several people died and a dozen houses were destroyed.
