A team of cave explorers in China has discovered a massive sinkhole that contains a well-preserved ancient forest. The sinkhole, known as a "tiankeng" in Chinese, is located in Leye County and is over 1,000 feet long, almost 500 feet wide, and 630 feet deep. It has three caves in its walls and is home to an ancient forest with trees over 100 feet tall. Karst topography, which is characterized by sinkholes, caves, and other features, is common in southern China due to the dissolution of rocks like limestone by rainwater. Sinkholes can pose risks to infrastructure and human safety, but detecting and mitigating them can help reduce these risks. The video could discuss a mysterious sinkhole and mention the world's biggest sinkhole located in the same region. It should also answer the following questions: How do sinkholes form? What is a karst landscape and how do they form? #brightside Animation is created by Bright Side. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/ Listen to Bright Side on: Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/idhttps-podcasts-apple-com-podcast-bright-side/id1554898078 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/brightside/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official/ Tik Tok - https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en Snapchat - https://www.snapchat.com/p/c6a1e38a-bff1-4a40-9731-2c8234ccb19f/1866144599336960 Stock materials (photos, footages and other): https://www.depositphotos.com https://www.shutterstock.com https://www.eastnews.ru ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00Imagine you are walking to your car in the morning, but there is a problem.
00:04Your vehicle is not sitting neatly by the side of the road.
00:08Its rear end is sticking out of a gaping hole.
00:11This is what happened to a Queens resident, New York, back in 2020.
00:16A sinkhole had swallowed his SUV overnight.
00:20Events like this are nothing out of the ordinary in many parts of the globe.
00:23But sometimes, sinkholes can hide unspoken beauty inside them.
00:28In East Asia, a recent find stunned the scientific community.
00:33Cave explorers came across a colossal sinkhole that concealed an ancient forest.
00:38It is located in a province, Guangxi Zhuang, close to the north of Vietnam, the Lay County,
00:45where researchers discovered the hidden forest is already famous worldwide for sinkholes.
00:51This one brings the number to 30.
00:53They are scattered over an area the size of three Gibraltars.
00:57This is just a tenth of the total number of sinkholes in the whole country.
01:02The name Tiankeng for these large holes in Earth's surface translates as sky holes or
01:08heavenly pits.
01:10The dimensions of the new sinkhole are impressive.
01:13It is over a thousand feet long, and it's pretty deep too.
01:17You could fit the Great Pyramid of Giza one and a half times inside it.
01:21The sinkhole's total volume matches that of 2,000 Olympic swimming pools.
01:26The exploration team had to hike for hours to reach the bottom.
01:30It was all worth it in the end.
01:32They discovered a pristine underground forest that had no trace of human activity.
01:38Scientists estimate that the plants date back to the time of the dinosaurs.
01:42The foliage reached to the explorers' shoulders.
01:46Some trees were two times taller than the Hollywood sign.
01:49This discovery was amazing, but not entirely unexpected.
01:53Geologists were familiar with this type of landscape.
01:57In this part of East Asia, karst topography is pretty common.
02:01The word is Slavic in origin.
02:04Since the late 19th century, geologists have been using it to describe barren limestone
02:09regions.
02:11This type of landscape features fissures in the ground, caves, underground streams, and,
02:16of course, sinkholes.
02:19It forms in parts of the world with heavy rainfall.
02:22The water dissolves materials such as limestone or dolomite.
02:26This creates a scenery that many people describe as wild beauty.
02:31Karst terrains have a practical purpose as well.
02:34They are ideal for storing water that humans can drink.
02:38Around 700 million people around the world use these karst aquifers as their primary
02:43water source.
02:44In the United States alone, 40% of the groundwater used for drinking comes from them.
02:50Springs of Florida and the Mammoth Cave in Kentucky are just some of the most famous
02:55karst areas.
02:57Geologists classify around a fifth of the U.S. land surface as karst.
03:02This type of terrain exists on other continents as well, in the Caribbean, Europe, Australia,
03:08and Asia.
03:09Due to local differences in climate and geology, karst doesn't appear the same everywhere.
03:14In the Spanish province of Malaga, the landscape consists of barren rock.
03:19This is what the karst regions of Italy, Slovenia, and Montenegro also look like.
03:25In East Asia, the landscape over the karst is green.
03:29This is because of the humid tropical climate.
03:32Sinkholes and cave entrances are usually hidden behind lush vegetation.
03:37The region's unique appearance got it inscribed on the UNESCO's World Heritage List in 2007.
03:44The world's second most populous country is home to two-thirds of the planet's natural
03:48occurring sinkholes, tiankengs.
03:52They start to form when rainwater seeps into cracks in the limestone.
03:56Over time, the gaps widen as more and more material is washed away.
04:01At one point, the ground above the limestone becomes unstable.
04:05The end result is the collapse of the surface layer.
04:08This happens suddenly and without prior warning signs.
04:12Once a hole forms in the ground, water starts filling it up.
04:16Another way for a sinkhole to form is the existence of an underground cave.
04:20Its roof can collapse.
04:22The shape of such sinkholes resembles a funnel.
04:25It is wider at the opening on the top and narrower near the bottom of the pool.
04:31The most famous of these sinkholes are cenotes.
04:34They occur naturally on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.
04:37The region is home to more than 2,000 cenotes.
04:40They are all former caves whose roofs had collapsed at some point in time, and they
04:45are filled with fresh water.
04:47The local people have been using them as water sources for thousands of years.
04:51The ancient Mayas gave them mystical symbolism.
04:54For them, the cenotes were passageways to the other world.
04:58In reality, they are just a feature of Karst terrain.
05:02Sinkholes that form in regions with abundant rainfall and limestone beneath the surface
05:06soil.
05:08The depth of a sinkhole can vary significantly.
05:11The smallest are barely three feet deep.
05:14When it fills up with water, it turns into a pond.
05:17A large lake can form in the place of a large sinkhole.
05:21One example is the Red Lake in Croatia.
05:23The most impressive thing about it are the steep cliffs that rise above the lake.
05:28They are nearly 800 feet tall.
05:31The world's biggest and deepest sinkhole, Xiaoshai Tiankeng, lies in the vicinity of
05:37the Yangtze River.
05:39The outside world discovered it only in 1994.
05:43The hole is so deep that you could stack up seven statues of liberty inside it.
05:48During the rainy season, a waterfall cascades from the pit's mouth into a cave system at
05:54the bottom.
05:55But not all sinkholes fill up with water.
05:59This was the case with the newly discovered Giant Sinkhole in Asia.
06:02It developed its own ecosystem.
06:05The high humidity and low temperature inside it were perfect for plant life to thrive.
06:11The very bottom of the hole is connected to an underground water flow.
06:17Scientists discovered 72 species of rare wild plants in the area.
06:22They are in danger of disappearing on the surface.
06:25But inside the sinkhole, they have found the perfect conditions for growth.
06:30The enormous opening in the ground is essentially a wildlife refuge.
06:35This was confirmed in 2021.
06:38That's when biologists discovered two species in the Yunnan province that they previously
06:43thought had gone extinct.
06:45Who knows what other animal and plant species are still hiding in there.
06:50Exploring these underground cave systems can be quite dangerous.
06:54They are often home to venomous snakes and mosquitoes.
06:57Even descending into a sinkhole is perilous.
07:00The cliffs are steep and stones are often very sharp.
07:04That's why the exploration of sinkholes in Asia is going slower than research would like.
07:10The sinkholes I've mentioned so far have all formed naturally.
07:14Erosion is the main process behind their creation.
07:17But the ground can also open because of human activity.
07:21Moving from a construction site to a leaking sewer pipe can cause the earth to give way.
07:27Sinkholes in urban areas pose a risk to infrastructure.
07:31One of the most famous examples of this happened in Japan in 2016.
07:36A busy street in downtown Fukuoka collapsed near the main train station.
07:40The sinkhole severed power lines and pipes that lay underground.
07:44Luckily, no one was injured.
07:47The diligent Japanese engineers repaired the damaged road section in just 48 hours.
07:53The biggest issue with sinkholes is that you never know when and where they are going to open.
07:59The best tool that geologists have for detecting underground cavities is Ground Penetrating Radar, GPR.
08:06It resembles a landmower.
08:08The operator goes up and down a troubled area to scan the ground underneath.
08:12The radar sends out impulses that detect any contrast between different materials.
08:18It feeds back this info in the form of a 2D or a 3D image.
08:23Once engineers detect a potential sinkhole, they use different techniques to stabilize
08:28the ground above it.
08:29The simplest method is called grouting.
08:32It involves filling the hole so it won't collapse.
08:35The most common materials are polyurethane foam and cement.
08:40The alternative is to lift a structure above the sinkhole.
08:43This technique is called underpinning.
08:46Workers drive steel rods into the load-bearing deeper layer of soil.
08:51This is the same construction method engineers use to erect stilt houses above the waterline.
08:57That's it for today.
09:01So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your
09:05friends.
09:06And if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!