A Giant Sinkhole Has Been Discovered in China With Its Very Own Forest

A team of Chinese scientists discovered a giant new sinkhole with a forest at its bottom.

According to the Xinhua news agency, the sinkhole is so deep that it can swallow the Gateway Arch.

A team of speleologists and spelunkers rappelled into the chasm on Friday to discover that there are three cave entrances, as well as ancient trees 131 feet tall, stretching their branches toward the sunlight that filters through the sinkhole entrance.

George Veni, the executive director of the National Cave and Karst Research Institute (NCKRI) in the US, said that it was cool news.

The Institute of Karst Geology of the China Geological Survey is the sister institute of NCKRI.

A site for sinkholes

Veni told Live Science that southern China is home to a landscape prone to dramatic sinkholes and caves.

Karst landscapes are formed by the dissolution of bedrock. Rainwater picks up carbon dioxide when it runs through the soil and becomes more acidic. It trickles, rushes and flows through cracks in the bedrock, slowly widening them into tunnels and voids.

There is a sinkhole in China. The images are from Eastimages and the images are from the

If a cave chamber gets large enough, the ceiling can gradually collapse, opening up huge sinkholes.

Skyscraper-size sinkholes open up on the ocean.

He said that local differences in geology, climate and other factors can dramatically change the way karst appears at the surface.

In China, you have this incredibly visually spectacular karst with enormous sinkholes and giant cave entrances. In other parts of the world, you don't notice anything when you walk on the karst. Only a meter or two in diameter are the depths of the holes. Cave entrances might be small, so you have to squeeze your way in.

Veni said that 25 percent of the United States is a pseudokarst, which is caves carved by factors other than dissolution. One of the two cave-rich landscapes makes up 20 percent of the world's landmass.

There was a new discovery in the county of Leye in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The UNESCO world heritage site designation of the region is due to its wonderful karst formations, which include sinkholes, rock pillars, and natural bridges.

Why sinkholes matter

According to a senior engineer with the Institute of Karst Geology, the interior of the sinkhole is 1,004 feet long and 150 feet wide.

The bottom of the enormous sinkhole seemed like it was another world, as the Mandarin word for it wastiankeng, orheavenly pit.

The dense undergrowth on the floor of the cave was as high as a person&s shoulders, according to Chen Lixin, who led the cave expedition team. Veni said that Karst caves and sinkholes can be an Oasis for life.

I wouldn't be surprised to know that there are species found in these caves that have never been reported or described by science.

In one West Texas cave, Veni said, tropical ferns grow in abundance; the spores of the ferns were apparently carried to the sheltered spot by bats that migrate to South and Central America.

In addition to being a place of refuge for life, caves and sinkholes are also conduits of underground water. 700 million people rely on the Karst aquifers as their primary water source. They are easily accessed and drained.

Veni said that the only types of aquifers that can be polluted with solid waste are the Karst ones.

There are 30 sinkholes in Leye County. The same researchers have previously discovered dozens of sinkholes in Shaanxi province and a cluster of connected ones in Guangxi.

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The article was published by Live Science. The original article can be found here.