Sinkhole in Guatemala, Argentina, South America

After the recent floods and Tropical Storm Agatha, suddenly a sinkhole has opened up in a Guatemala Street and it's swallowed a whole high-rise building and a house.  The sinkhole first appeared overnight in May/June 2010.  There was a previous sinkhole elsewhere in the city in 2007, which killed three people when several houses were swallowed up.

Sinkholes can be naturally occurring phenomena, or they can be the result of old mining shafts, or even over-working of a sewage system. It's quite rare for such large sinkholes to open up and swallow whole buildings though, or houses.

There has been a previous sinkhole in Guatemala, in 2007, which killed three people. That one was 300 feet deep and caused by sewage water dissolving the underlying rock.

The trigger for this sinkhole is most likely the water caused by Storm Agatha sweeping away the underlying rock too.

Sinkholes such as this one in Guatemala are known around the world. It's just the sheer size of the sinkhole in Guatemala that's unbelievable

You might be wondering about the size of the sinkhole in Guatemala.

It's a full 60metres deep and 30metres wide. Large enough to swallow the Statue of Liberty.  That is 200 feet deep - and the sinkhole in Guatemala could get even bigger.

The sinkhole in Guatemala in 2010 is the biggest I've ever seen! Do you know of others?

 Since the sinkhole in Guatemala appeared, geologists have been investigating it and many have wondered if it is a manmade sinkhole.  Naturally, people living in the neighbourhood of this huge hole in the earth are wondering if it could happen to them, or if it was something that was caused by construction of the swallowed building, or caused by the building of the sewer tunnels.

A worry, whichever it is!