The giant sinkhole in Mexico is still expanding. (Image credit: AFP)
A gigantic sinkhole, which looks like a crater formed due to a collision of a spacecraft, has appeared in farmland in central Mexico and is threatening to swallow a nearby house. The sinkhole in Puebla state has quickly grown to at least 60 metres in diameter and is still increasing. Since it first appeared last week, Mexico government officials have visited the site and estimated the hole, now filled with groundwater, to be about 60 feet deep. They have warned locals to not go near the mouth of the crater.
When it appeared on Saturday, it was only a few metres in size but has since swallowed nearly 70,000 square feet of the farmland to take a massive form. No one has been injured so far and the family that lived in the nearby house has been moved to a safer place, the New York Post reported.
“At 6 o'clock, we heard thunder. We did not think this was it and then my in-laws realized it and when I got closer, I saw that the earth sank and how the water was bubbling and I panicked,” Magdalena, one of the house residents, told the local El Sol de México outlet, the report added.
Magdalena said they are getting to understand that the house is unlikely to remain safe for a long time and this makes the residents “very sad”. Magdalena said they built the house with a lot of effort and sacrifice “but this happened”.
Locals said that they believe beneath the farmland there was a large pond, called a “jagüey”.
According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), sinkholes occur when the ground can no longer support the land surface above it. And this can happen because of a number of reasons, including the erosion of rock beneath the land surface as groundwater passes through it. This creates a void underneath the surface into which it collapses.
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