According to the Xinhua News Agency, the depth of the sinkhole is 192 meters.
In Southern China, there are many karst landscapes, which are formed mainly as a result of the dissolution of bedrock.Rainwater with low acidity absorbs carbon dioxide as it passes through the soil and becomes even more acidic.It then flows through cracks in the rock, slowly widening them, creating tunnels and voids.Over time, if the cave chamber gets large enough, the ceiling can gradually collapse, revealing huge sinkholes.At the same time, the entrances to the caves can be very small.
A new crater was found in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, near the village of Ping'e in Leiye County. Guangxi is known for its karst formations, which range fromIt is because of these features that the region is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
The inside of the crater is 306 m long and 150 m wide.In China, such huge sinkholes are called "tiankeng", or "paradise pit".And the craters really do seem like another world. Chen Lixin, who led the expedition to the cave, told Xinhua News Agency that the dense undergrowth at the bottom of the crater reachesthe height of a person's shoulders.
According to George Veni, chief executiveNational Research Institute NCKRI in the USA, karst caves and sinkholes can become an oasis for life. “I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that species have been found in these caves that science hasn’t reported until now,” he concludes.
The new discovery increased the number of craters in Leiye County to 30.The same researchers had previously found dozens of craters in northwest China's Shaanxi Province and a group of interconnected craters in Guangxi China Daily.
Read more
Look at the "silent" drone with a new generation of ion propulsion
Ancient trilobite males strapped females on during mating
Russia and the United States have Doomsday planes: how and where they will fly in the event of the end of the world
</ p>