Giant Sinkhole in Guatemala!

[sensei8]

Here's the link...

http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/science_technology/huge+guatemala+sinkhole+appears+after+tropical+storm+agatha+batters+central+america/3665832

This sinkhole "swallowed a three story building and 12 homes."

[Patrick]

Scary stuff. Just a weird photo to have to look at. The article doesn't appear to mention 12 homes, though.

Thanks,

Patrick

[sensei8]

The article doesn't appear to mention 12 homes, though.

My bad! I was confusing and mixing up the facts between with the 2010 Guatemala City Sinkhole AND the 2007 Guatemala City Sinkhole.

2007 story...

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070226-sinkhole-photo.html

[GeoGiant]

The story doesn't give you a lot of information about the rock but the story is kind of misleading. Here is a rough description - water or sewage running over the rock does dissolve the rock.... along the weakest planes first, solution channel are created, and these channels eventually grow to caverns. It takes a longggggg time for this process to occur. However while all this is going on, mud / rock mixes plug up these channels or caverns while they grow. As long as the mud / rock mix is dense enough, the plug will remain in place.

After a large rain or leak saturates these mud plugs they become unstable and slide down through the channel or cavern... that is how a hole that big forms with no one seeing anything until its a catastrophe.

The thing is, where there is one..... there is more. I agree with the guy that said he was leaving.

[GeoGiant]

I saw an update right after my post.

That hole was not a sinkhole. Sinkholes are formed in karst rock... that area is underlain with pumice rock. I could go on and on about geologic nomenclature but I can see you eyes getting heavy....

[Patrick]

Thanks for that, GeoGiant.

No worries, Bob.

Patrick