When the ground is slipping from under your feet

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Not so long ago, a car fell into the ground in Ufa. She was never found: the communal services explained this by the fact that "Kalina" was either carried away by groundwater, or sucked into the muddy soil. Karst voids are a very dangerous thing: you never guess at what moment the earth will leave from under your feet. But if the dip in Ufa was small, then the planet can boast of huge "holes" in the surface, the size of which is amazing: and not all of them were formed due to the fault of groundwater.

Anthropogenic "failures"

The love of luxury has given rise to a craving for precious stones in mankind, and that, in turn, forces us to look for all new ways of mining and depositing them. The Mir and Udachnaya kimberlite pipes located in Yakutia have become famous all over the world.

When the geologists discovered Mir, an encrypted radiogram flew from them with the words "We lit a pipe of peace, excellent tobacco. Avdeenko, Elagina, Khabardin." Discovered in 1955, this diamond deposit provided material for development for several decades to come. In the process of diamond mining, the quarry has grown: its depth is now more than half a kilometer, and its diameter is over 1.2 km. Just imagine: the path of a dump truck following a spiral road to the surface of the quarry was more than 8 km! Geological exploration shows that the depth of the diamonds in this place is about a kilometer, but since 2009 the development has gone underground: it has become too dangerous to continue mining diamonds in the open way. The same fate befell the Udachnaya kimberlite pipe: this deposit, like Mir, was discovered in the north of Yakutia in 1955, but development began only in 1982. Since 2014, only an underground mine has been discovered here.

Due to the change in mining method, our kimberlite pipes will not be able to catch up with the size of Bingham Canyon. This monster is located in the United States, Utah. There are no diamonds, but there is copper, which has been mined since 1863. One of the largest anthropogenic formations in the world, the quarry reaches a diameter of almost 4 km, and is more than 1.2 km deep. Open-pit mining is underway there, but in the spring of 2013 it had to be stopped indefinitely due to a giant landslide, which destroyed only production buildings and destroyed equipment: people were not injured, since all workers were prudently evacuated several weeks before the earth collapsed.

The Big Hole kimberlite pipe is no less unique. It does not exceed previous quarries in size, but differs in that it was completely handcrafted. Beginning in 1866, the African city of Kimberley was filled with miners who, up to 1914, mined 2,722 kilograms of diamonds with picks and shovels, and dredged more than 20 million tons of soil. It was there that the world famous diamonds were discovered: De Beers (428.5 carats), Porter Rhodes (150 carats), Tiffany (128.5 carats). It is scary to imagine how many lives the "Big Hole" claimed during its existence: people became victims of landslides, heat and each other, because nobody canceled the hunt for especially successful miners. After all that was possible was extracted from the mine, it was partially covered with waste rock and additionally filled with a layer of water, as a result of which the depth of the “Hole” decreased from 240 to 215 meters. Now it is one of the main attractions of the city of Kimberley, which attracts thousands of tourists. Many of them note that when examining a quarry from a special site, their health worsens. Either this high altitude influences so much, or nevertheless, this place has a bad energy, like others with “bloody” stories. By the way, such geological structures and accompanying rocks are called kimberlite precisely because of the city of Kimberley.

Through the fault of groundwater

Closed and working careers are dangerous now only with energy, and unless an extreme lover can break something for himself there. However, in general, these places are known and quite safe: if you do not climb there without preparation and "uniforms", then they will not harm you in any way. But when failure appears almost instantly, where nothing foreshadowed trouble, that's a completely different story. This can happen anywhere: in an open field, in a forest, on a highway or in a city center. The trouble is that it is very rare to predict such a phenomenon.

Take Guatemala, the capital of the state of the same name. The city is located in a quiet place - at least, it seemed to its residents until 2007. It was then that the first soil collapse occurred. No seismic activity was observed - just at one fine moment a round hole formed on one of the streets, in which several buildings disappeared. The victims were almost avoided: the underground rumble, which became audible several hours before the disaster, warned the residents of the danger, and most of them managed to evacuate. Three years later, history repeated itself: another failure, an almost perfect round shape, again brought destruction to the city. By this time, local geologists had already figured out the reason for this phenomenon. Guatemala partially stands on deposits of limestone, which is gradually washed away by groundwater (municipal accidents that occur with enviable consistency also have an impact). Because of this, large underground cavities are formed, the layer of earth above which can collapse at any moment. A decent part of the city is at risk, but residents are in no hurry to leave it: no one will provide them with new housing. Moreover, among the devout townspeople there is an opinion that it is not the limestone rock that is to blame. They are sure that it is "the finger of the devil indicates on the earth the place where sinners walk."

There are also such “marks” in Russia, the most famous of which are the gaps in Berezniki. However, in our country they have a completely adequate explanation: the earth is leaving from under our feet in those places where there are abandoned mines. Under the influence of water, voids increase and sag, forming holes. This applies not only to Berezniki, but also to any other settlement that is located dangerously close to such mines. Sometimes a future failure “warns” about itself with a hum, a slight shaking of the soil, but more often it becomes a surprise even for eminent geophysicists.

Similar cases occur all over the planet: the geography of failures is vast, it is not as rare a phenomenon as its involuntary participants would like it to be. Unfortunately, it is not always possible to do without sacrifice.

Record holders

If you follow the terminology of believing Guatemalans, then in some places the devil not only pierced the ground with his finger, but kissed with all his five fingers. This can be said about the natural failures located on one of the mesas of Venezuela. Tepui - this is the name of the type of these mountains - resemble hills, as they are located at a distance from each other, moreover, they are difficult to access for an outsider: this is facilitated by their location and the fact that they are part of the Venezuelan National Park. From the language of the local Indians, the word “tepui” is translated as “the house of the gods”.

Among others, the tepui Sarisarinyama is distinguished, at the top of which there are several giant funnels of almost regular round shape. Each of them is about 350 meters in diameter, about the same depth, and endemic species of flora live at the bottom of these craters. Scientists have suggested that the depressions are the result of centuries of work by rain streams, which gradually washed out the limestone. However, it is not known why the round shape was the result.

There is a similar miracle and “at the bottom of the sea”. The Great Blue Hole - a sinkhole with a diameter of 305 meters and a depth of 120 meters - has become a real boon for diving enthusiasts. According to Jacques-Yves Cousteau, who discovered it, it deserves to be included in the top ten diving spots. The sea level was once much lower, and in the place of the Belize Barrier Reef there was a large network of karst caves. As the water level rose, its pressure on the cave vaults increased, and once they simply collapsed. Now the Great Blue Hole, despite its inaccessibility (about 100 km from the coast of Central America and the city of Belize), attracts scuba divers from all over the world with rare species of fish and amazing views.

Sometimes trait fingerprints can make people happy. It is a pity that this happens less often than the tragedies brought by them.