Agencies – Gaza Post
Giant sinkhole filled with water suddenly opens up in Chile
A massive hole 656 feet deep and 82 feet in diameter suddenly opened near an underground copper mine in Chile over the weekend.
Specialized teams of geologists were transferred to the Alcaparrosa site operated by the Canadian company Lundin Mining Corp, which is located about 665 km north of the capital Santiago.
Sernagomin published aerial photos of the huge excavation, and said that they had issued an order to stop work to assess the situation.
In a statement on Monday, Lundin Mining said the sinkhole, which appears to be full of water, has not affected any workers or community members and has remained stable since its discovery.
She added that development work in the Alcaparrosa underground mine area has been temporarily stopped as a precautionary measure and is being monitored continuously.
Giant sinkhole filled with water suddenly opens up in Chile
The company said that the nearest house is more than 600 meters from the sinkhole while any populated area or public service is approximately one kilometer from the affected area.
David Montenegro said that they did not detect any substance inside the stream, but said that it contained large amounts of water.
“There is a great distance to the bottom which is about 200 meters, “Montenegro said. “We didn’t detect any substances there, but we saw that there was a lot of water.”
Lundin Mining controls 80 percent of the property while Sumitomo Corporation of Japan owns the rest.
Days later the news of the pit comes from an incident in which a woman in New Zealand was seriously injured after falling into the pit of an underground heat sink in a popular tourist area.
The Australian woman had been swallowed by a two-meter-wide hole that suddenly exploded on a pedestrian walkway in the center of the North Island.
In May, a huge sinkhole discovered in China was found to be home to a forest with trees 131 feet high.
