Slide 1

Sinkholes Swallowing Roads, Houses and Cars

A burst sewer pipe or storm drain probably hollowed out the underground cavity that allowed the chasm to form, The Guatemala City sinkhole, estimated to be 60 feet (18 meters) wide and 300 feet (100 meters) deep, appears to have been triggered by the deluge from tropical storm Agatha. But the cavity formed in the first place because the city and its underground infrastructure were built in a region where the first few hundred meters of ground are mostly made up of a material called pumice fill,