Was I shocked to see the Guatamalan sinkhole photos from yesterday.  This thing is 330 feet deep, they make it look double the height of the statue of liberty!  Thankfully it was at an intersection, a house fell in and 2 boys were killed - a third person as well I believe.

The top picture in your post is a sinkhole from 2007.  The bottom one is from a few days ago. 

The top picture in your post is a sinkhole from 2007.  The bottom one is from a few days ago. 

Groan... I was trying to impress ya and scrounged for the photos!  Oh well, equally as horrifying.  I simply can't wrap my head around it.

A friend at office showed me this today.  Now, what's below?  Where did all the soil go? A cave?

A friend at office showed me this today.  Now, what's below?  Where did all the soil go? A cave?

That's what I was wondering too. Are there mines under there?

It seems it was the sewage system down there. I thought it might be a cave, as their neighbour Mexico has so many of them.

I'm glad I never saw photos like that when I was a kid as it was always a big fear of mine that the road might break and we'd drive into a big hole.

I had a bit of a chuckle with the depth graphic. Americans usually relate to how long something is by comparing it to a football field - I guess depth is done with how many Statues of Liberty it is.

Fact is, comparing something of massive size to an instantly recognizable "thing" is an effective way to describe scale.  It fires up the imagination in a way that saying 330 feet does not.

But to be fair, perhaps Americans should instead start using some iconic Canadian landmarks for scale comparisons, like... um.... help me out here...

Quote from: sharply_done on June 01, 2010, 20:29

I had a bit of a chuckle with the depth graphic. Americans usually relate to how long something is by comparing it to a football field - I guess depth is done with how many Statues of Liberty it is.

But to be fair, perhaps Americans should instead start using some iconic Canadian landmarks for scale comparisons, like... um.... help me out here...

I'll take that challenge.  The CN tower stands at 1815 feet and was for many years the largest freestanding structure in the world.  (The Empire state building is 1250)

Yes I lived in Toronto.  When I moved there I thought, wow, these people are really proud of that tall tower.  I found it very useful whenever I came out of an unfamiliar subway and didn't know which direction I was pointing.  I would can the horizon for the tower and knew that was south.

sad for the people who died.

I saw the title of the thread and assumed it was a new site and thought I dont think much of the name

I can't picture it, how big is it compared to the size of Wales?

About 1/2 as wide and infinitely deeper.

It is fake 

lol