No matter how strong we build buildings, nature can always bring them down. This picture was taken in Guatemala City yesterday after a massive sinkhole, a natural depression that can form when water-saturated soil becomes too heavy for its base, swallowed a three-story building — an event that was eerily reminiscent of a 2007 sinkhole that killed three people and destroyed a dozen homes in the same city.
Sinkholes occur when the limestone or other surface rock gets eroded by water, creating subsurface caves and caverns. The ground above the eroding rock then falls into the empty space when it gets loaded down by water. The 2010 sinkhole, which was a result of the downpour from Tropical Storm Agatha, opened up so fast that it swallowed two buildings and may have killed up to 100 people — though given the fact that a three-story building and a house were decimated, the final casualty numbers could be higher. And at 60 feet wide and a whopping 30 stories deep, it has the capacity to get even bigger, very quickly. National Geographic reports:
A ruptured sewer line is thought to have caused the sinkhole that appeared in Guatemala City in 2007.
The 2010 Guatemala sinkhole could have formed in a similar fashion, Currens said. A burst sanitary or storm sewer may have been slowly saturating the surrounding soil for a long time before tropical storm Agatha added to the inundation.
“The tropical storm came along and would have dumped even more water in there, and that could have been the final trigger that precipitated the collapse,” Currens said.
Depending on the makeup of the subsurface layer, the Guatemala sinkhole “could eventually enlarge and take in more buildings,” he said.
Rebuilding on this now-sunken land will be no easy feat: Normally, cities can fill in sinkholes with large rocks and other debris, and then commence building. But this hole is so massive that it could take months, or years to fill. As for prevention, the key is providing adequate storm sewer and drainage systems — not a small project in the slums of Guatemala City, where the recent population explosion has led to the rapid growth of slums with poor infrastructure.
Image: Flickr
June 1st, 2010 at 8:06 pm
I thought this image was photoshopped when I first saw it a couple of days ago. This is just creepy as hell.
June 1st, 2010 at 8:46 pm
This happens once in a while in developing countries - not just Guatemala, but also e.g. Mexico City - but not in developed ones. Is this an issue of developed countries’ having more water-resistant rocks, or of their having better infrastructure?
June 1st, 2010 at 9:46 pm
Most reputable news reports say that 1 person is missing and presumed dead from this sinkhole, not 100 or more. The 3 story building was a factory, which was reportedly closed at the time, and only a security guard was present (now missing). You should cite more reputable news sources.
June 1st, 2010 at 11:13 pm
I suspect it is both. Guatemala City is built on karst topography. Basically it is built on layers of water soluble rock. A leaky storm or sewer drain slowly dissolves enough rock to create a low spot that then allows even more water from rain and other runoff to accumulate, in turn making the hole even deeper. Most of central Kentucky is built on a similar type of soil and sinkholes can be a problem here too. Of course, our infrastructure is in better shape (at least for now, it seems like more and more of our resources are put towards new development in outlying areas instead of maintaining existing storm and sanitary sewers). Nearby Huntington, West Virginia isn’t build on a karst, but is on a lot river silt and basically hasn’t done any significant infrastructure improvements in decades. Hardly a month goes by when there isn’t a major road closure cause by a leaking water main or sewer line causing a 20 - 30 foot wide hole to open up in the road overnight, and this has been happening with regularity since I lived their nearly a decade ago.
June 1st, 2010 at 11:49 pm
Does look like a straight shot to Hades…anyone have any idea how deep it is?
and Alon, maybe it’s just a matter of time before something that happens in Florida? No idea though.
June 2nd, 2010 at 2:16 am
How exactly do you go about filling something like that? Where do you find the rock to plug that hole?
June 2nd, 2010 at 12:48 pm
unbelievable but surely bibblical
June 2nd, 2010 at 1:50 pm
I’m still not convinced the photo is real. Where is the building?
June 2nd, 2010 at 1:51 pm
Where are the crowds?
June 2nd, 2010 at 2:42 pm
The question no one is asking should be: How low is the water table in this area?
Large caverns in Karst areas, including urbanized parts of Florida, are not uncommon, but the reason sinkholes like this form is that the water table has dropped sufficiently to reduce or remove the hydrostatic pressure of water. When such caverns are full of water, it’s less likely that the overlying sediments and rock with collapse. What the picture of the Guatemala City sinkhole is telling me is that the natural water table is extremely low, and so there is essentially no water pressure pushing back towards the surface.
Guatemala City is HUGE. My uneducated guess is that the water table is incredibly low from overpumping for municipal water supplies. If this is the case–look at the picture again–then expect more such catastrophes.
June 3rd, 2010 at 12:04 pm
Is the earth hollow? What is at the bottom of this thing? Are there any other pictures, say from the rim? It looks ’shopped.
June 3rd, 2010 at 7:01 pm
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