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What really impresses me is how neat it is. It's like someone just fired a giant laser and burrowed down through the surface. And the pitch-black darkness down at the very bottom really adds to it.

Aye, that one there is amazing close to a perfect circle for a bunch of collapsing earth. And the bottemless looking apsect of it is pretty creepy/awesome.

Sionnach Glic wrote:It's like someone just fired a giant laser and burrowed down through the surface.

Why?! What did you hear?! I mean, that's crazy talk! Nobody could do that!

Lighthawk wrote:Aye, that one there is amazing close to a perfect circle for a bunch of collapsing earth.

I imagine that a circle would be the shape nature prefers for such a thing. When one swallowed most of a section of a six-lane highway here in my town, the hole was pretty much round.

Who pissed Nero off this time...

It's happened before, might even be the same country. What surprises me is that they had the sewer down that deep.

I love that they haven't confirmed the fatality, they must think that guard was superman or something.

Yeah, this happened three years ago in the same city. Pics here. It looks just the same as this one.

Methinks someone should seriously do a geological survey to make sure the entire bloody city isn't going to go down next.

Dear lord! The Mole People are finally attacking!

What surprises me is the whole got that deep before it collapsed. Thats some strong roadway.

stitch626 wrote:What surprises me is the whole got that deep before it collapsed. Thats some strong roadway.

The hole began from the bottom up - as Lighthawk said, these things occur when the substrate is eroded while the overlaying layers remain intact.

That's still pretty freaky.

Mikey wrote:

stitch626 wrote:What surprises me is the whole got that deep before it collapsed. Thats some strong roadway.

The hole began from the bottom up - as Lighthawk said, these things occur when the substrate is eroded while the overlaying layers remain intact.

Oops... I'm having an odd day today.

The Naica crystal cave :

The Naica Mine of the Mexican state of Chihuahua is a working mine that is known for its extraordinary selenite crystals. Some of the selenite crystals are as large as 4 feet in diameter and 36 feet long, making them the largest crystals ever found. The selenite crystals were formed by hydrothermal fluids emanating from the magma chambers below. The cavern was discovered while the miners were drilling through the Naica fault, which they were worried would flood the mine.

Conditions in the caves are incredibly dangerous - 50 C heat and near 100% humidity means that water from the air rapidly condenses in a person's lungs. Simply standing in the cave breathing will condense enough water that you begin to drown within ten minutes. Staying any longer means wearing a special suit with a cooling system and breathing specially dried air from breathing gear.

To the mining company, the cave is an oddity with no real value. The crystals themselves have no intrinsic worth, and there is no money to be made from tourism given how dangerous and inaccessible the caves are. Eventually when the mine becomes unprofitable the caves will be abandoned and allowed to re-flood, at which point they will be lost to us forever.

The startling thing is that many more and larger surprises like this are probably waiting to be found in the Earth's crust. Only the most miniscule fraction of the crust has been explored throughout history - we know far more about conditions at the edge of the solar system than we do about conditions even one mile under our own feet.

Superman is going to be pissed that someone found his game room.

And this:

50 C heat and near 100% humidity means that water from the air rapidly condenses in a person's lungs.

Sounds just like Houston in the summer.

Tsukiyumi wrote:Superman is going to be pissed that someone found his game room.

Beat me to it.

Man, imagine the kind of lightsabers you could make with those.