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Giant Guatemalan 'Sinkhole' Is Worse Than We Thought
reillymj writes "Despite hundreds of media reports to the contrary, Sam Bonis, a geologist whose life work has been studying Guatemalan geology, has plainly said that the dramatic 'sinkhole' in Guatemala City that opened over the weekend isn't a sinkhole at all. Instead, he called it a 'piping feature' and warned that because the country's capital city sits on a pile of loose volcanic ash, the over one million people living on top of the pile are in danger. 'I'd hate to have to be in the government right now,' Bonis, who worked for the Guatemalan government's Instituto Geografico Nacional for 16 years, said. 'There is an excellent potential for this to happen again. It could happen almost anywhere in the city.'"
This was the perfect opportunity for him to make a pun. "There is an excellent potential for this to happen again. It could happen almost anywhere in the city.' Should have been "I have a sinking feeling that this could happen again."
Don't do it.
Goatse recently moved to Guatemala City.
Eloi are stupid, throw morlocks at them!
Any chance a large amount of oil would fix things?
Probably not even remotely possible due to its size, but a similar problem seems to have been created in Kiruna, in Sweden. The town sits on top of the world's largest iron ore mine, and the mine has created a large cavity under the town. They are moving everything, in some cases, literally brick by brick. There's a neat article about it in this month's National Geographic.
I dunno why, but I suddenly pictured a bunch of embarrassed Swedes whistling as they quietly move the town over a few hundred meters.
A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
My ex made a /. headline!
The city could have a hole lot of problems.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
A group of Iranian visitors inspecting the hole claimed that it was "madness", but they were quickly dealt with.
All the other mayors said I was daft to build a city on top of ash, but I built it all the same, just to show 'em!
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Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
And a bunch of confused tourists wondering why their GPSes are off so badly - the map is right, but it says the town is somewhere else.
After seeing that amazing picture and realizing that it wasn't a really bad Photoshop job, I almost expected the headline to read "Higgs Boson Found!".
Right. No, your other right. No, the other other right.
You know, Guatemala covers the geographic location of the ancient Mayan civilization.
...
It's getting pretty close to 2012.
Just sayin
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Naa, just a lame knockoff of goatse!
So this city has a literal real estate bubble?