I'll have to start trolling the conspiracy web sites to see what they come up with. I can't decide between errant test of a space based energy weapon and an alien something or other.

I was thinking the same thing but in looking at sinkhole pictures online I'm seeing that it seems to be pretty common for big ones to have pretty straight lines and be surprisingly circular. Such as this one in Texas in 2003:

With duct tape, of course! Lots and lots of duct tape.

Interesting, while the original story linked says the hole is 200 feet deep, an AP News story lists it at 100 feet. Can't somebody get out a tape measure and settle this matter?

Out of morbid curiosity, I wanted to know how many dump-truck loads of dirt it would take to fill the sink-hole. Using the measurements from the AP New link (66 feet across x 100 feet deep), I calculate that there is approximately 342,257 cubic feet of hole that needs to be filled in. The average three-axle dump truck can hold about 10 cubic yards or 270 cubic feet. So, about 1,268 trips of the dump truck would be required (not accounting for further erosion, compaction, etc.).

I was curious about how many trips the Liebherr TI 274 would require.



Since all the capacity ratings for this beast are given in terms of weight and not volume, a little conversion was required. Using 1,000 pounds as the weight of one cubic yard of top soil (highly variable due to moisture content), this would mean that the hole requires about 6,338 tons of dirt. Since the TI 274 can handle about 320 tons per load, this truck would only require about 20 loads of dirt. I think they should use one of these :D

But even in looking at this one, you can still see some pronounced angle to what can be seen of the sides - especially in the upper left area of the whole. Plus, on this example, we are seeing a relatively small portion of the actual hole (due to the water).

But looking further, a cursory glance seems to indicate that at least towards the tops, the edges are pretty straight. However, I still think the Guatemala sinkhole is awfully straight-sided.

I think one of these, filled with dirt, would just cause another sinkhole.

Good point! I wouldn't want to drive it to the edge, would you? :eek:

One thing that makes me wonder about "filling in the hole" is the fact that there is no bottom. It seems to open up to a large cavern. If the hole is only but the tip of the iceberg in this void, then how in the world could they begin to repair this? Or will it just become a permanent and ever widening hole? (Which reminds me of some people I know)

You know, it really had been a long time since I last thought of goatse.cx. Thanks for bringing that to an end.

Wow (link itself to Wikipedia is safe - the descriptions not so much)

Googling Goatse is a huge mistake.