GUATEMALA SINKHOLE NOT A SINKHOLE, EXPERT SAYS

THE GIANT SINKHOLE THAT OPENED BENEATH
DOWNTOWN GUATEMALA CITY ISN'T A SINKHOLE

news.discovery - The gigantic sinkhole in Guatemala that was created by the tropical storm Agatha is not a sinkhole, says an expert. Sam Bonis, a geologist, is claiming that the ’sinkholes’ are areas where its bedrock is solid but has been eaten away by ground water and that the situation in the Republic of Guatemala’s capital is far more different and much more dangerous. “Sure, it looks a lot like a sinkhole. And a whale looks a lot like a fish, but calling it one would be very misleading,” he says. Instead, Bonis prefers the term "piping feature" for the 100-foot deep, 66-foot side circular chasm. But it's an important distinction, he maintains, because "sinkholes" refer to areas where bedrock is solid but has been eaten away by groundwater, forming a geological Swiss cheese whose contours are nearly impossible to predict. The situation beneath the country's capital is far different, and more dangerous.

The lion's share of the city is built on pumice fill - ash flows made up of loose, gravel-like particles deposited during ancient volcanic eruptions. In 2007, a similar hole opened after a sewage pipe broke pipe just a few blocks from this weekend's disaster. Bonis was part of a team of geologists and engineers brought in to investigate and advise officials on what went wrong. "Our recommendation was that this could happen again," he recalled. "When you have water flowing from storm water runoff, a sewage pipe, or any kind of strong flow, it eats away at the loose material. We don't know how long it has to go on before it collapses. But once it starts collapsing, God help us." The Guatemala City metro area is home to nearly 3 million people, and around 1-1.5 million live on the fill, with the rest perched on the valley walls.


Local government should manage the city's runoff and waste water in a better way. Sometimes it is Mother Nature - by earthquakes or deadly storms -, other times is people who don't care about social welfare: everywhere we have signs of the fleeting permanence of things and the futility of this life if we don't look for a trascendental existence.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

There are multifarious miseries in material existence - those pertaining to the body and the mind, those imposed by other living entities and those imposed by natural disturbances. But a sādhu is not disturbed by such miserable conditions because his mind is always filled with Krishna consciousness, and thus he does not like to talk about anything but the activities of the Lord. Mahārāja Ambarīsha did not speak of anything but the pastimes of the Lord. ... He engaged his words only in glorification of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Sādhus are always interested in hearing about the activities of the Lord or His devotees. Since they are filled with Krishna consciousness, they are forgetful of the material miseries.

Śrīla A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda :
“The Śrīmad Bhāgavatam”
Purport in Canto 3 - Chapter 25 - Verse 23.