After Guatemala, Now A
Sinkhole In China
After the Sinkhole in Guatemala, now sinking
land has created an enormous hole in front
of an elementary school and swallowed an
entire playground in Ningxiang county in
China's Hunan province.
The sinkhole started to yield in
mid-January, at first forming a hole twenty
meters in diameter. Intense springtime
rainfall has since accelerated the hole's
expansion, which has, in turn, caused damage
to area buildings.
According to Local officials many families
living nearby have already been evacuated,
with government subsidies provided.
At least eight additional sinkholes have
formed in various Chinese regions in the
past few weeks, sparking fears among
residents that the holes could be an early
indication of other seismic activity in the
country.
The latest known sinkhole formed on June 4,
in the middle of a freeway in Zhejiang
Province on the nation's eastern coast. The
sinkhole measured 20 feet deep and 27 feet
wide.
Later the same day, about 300 miles west in
Nanchang City, capital Jiangxi Province, a
moving car was trapped when a hole about the
size of the car suddenly opened up on a main
road.
On June 3, four huge sinkholes opened up in
Guangxi Province where a torrential storm
was raging. According to Chinese state media
reports, more than 600 villagers had to be
evacuated because of them.
Three smaller holes were found between May
27 and May 30 in southwestern Sichuan
Province, less than 80 miles from the
Wenchuan epicenter of the deadly May 2008
Sichuan earthquake that killed approximately
80,000 people.
In Yibin City about 260 miles from the
earthquake's epicenter, 26 larger sinkholes
have formed since April 27, 2010. |
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