A giant sinkhole in Chile detected last week and continuing to grow currently measures approximately 160 feet wide and 656 feet deep and has bewildered authorities over how it got so huge.
The hole was detected on July 30 near the town of Tierra Amarilla, about 413 miles north of Santiago, which is also near the Alcaparrosa mine owned by Canadian company Lundin Mining.
Sernageomin, the National Service of Geology and Mining, issued a press release on Saturday confirming it was investigating how the sinkhole formed and announcing a temporary suspension of operations at the Alcaparrosa mine due to safety concerns, according to mining.com.
“In the next few days, we will be working on assessing the state of the mine’s chambers, particularly the one located underneath the sinkhole, which is thought to be overexploited,” the press release stated.
“Sernageomin also said that it has issued sanctions against Candelaria, the subsidiary that operates the Candelaria complex in Chile’s northern Atacama region, where Alcaparrosa is located,” according to mining.com.
Lundin Mining released a statement on August 1 confirming it was aware of the sinkhole but that it “has remained stable since detection.” However, since that statement was released, the span of the sinkhole has nearly doubled, as it measured approximately 82 feet the previous week, Reuters reported.
Lundin Mining owns 80 percent of the Alcaparrosa mine, while Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation owns 20 percent.
Tierra Amarilla’s mayor, Cristóbal Zúñiga, told reporters last week that he was worried about how fast the sinkhole was growing.
“This is the largest sinkhole we have seen in recent times. We are very worried because it is active and it keeps on growing. Our community had never seen this,” Zúñiga said, per ABC News.
According to Reuters, the sinkhole is now large enough to hold Paris’s Arc De Triomphe, Seattle’s Space Needle, and six head-to-head stacked statues of Rio De Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer.
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