Portal to hell: a giant hole in the ground appeared in Chile

On August 1, the small Chilean town of Tierra Amarilla (translated from Spanish as Yellow Earth) acquired an impressive landmark that even the world media noticed. We are talking about a giant hole in the ground with a diameter of 25 and a depth of 200 meters, which was formed right in the middle of a local dirt road. A rare locality can boast of such a tourist attraction. However, 8 thousand residents of the commune were dissatisfied with the appearance of their own miracle of the world. You see, it prevents them from living.

Not far from the crater, a mine of a Canadian company engaged in copper mining is visible.

The Chilean authorities ordered to stop underground work at the mine until the circumstances are clarified. The mine administration brought the workers to the surface, but in turn assured that the funnel did not affect communications underground, the mine had nothing to do with it and “it failed by itself.”

The locals did not remain in debt and are rocking the boat, pelting the local media with angry letters.

"We are very concerned because we have been afraid all the time that something like this could happen, because we are surrounded by mineral deposits that are being actively developed," one of them says.

Now geologists will investigate this area for what actually happened? Should residents wait for new wonders of the world? And how dangerous is all this?

But experts believe that it is unlikely that the mining company will close the mine, which produced 118,600 tons of copper last year. Lundin Mining, owned by Canadian-Swedish billionaire Lukas Lundin (he died last week from brain cancer at the age of 64), bought the mine only in 2014 and invested about $ 1 billion in its Chilean projects.

Sinkholes appear where there are karst rocks. Scientists distinguish three types of funnels: surface leaching, sinkhole or gravity funnels and suction funnels.

There are such depressions in Europe, Asia and America.