Giant sinkhole found in southern China

A group of cave explorers discovered a giant sinkhole in the Leye County of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southern China, bringing the number of such craters in Leye to 30, Xinhua news agency reports.

Zhang Yuanhai, senior engineer at the Institute of Karst Geology of the Geological Survey of China, said that the sinkhole, located near the village of Pingye near the city of Luoxi, measures 306 m long, 150 m wide and 192 m deep, and its volume exceeds 5 million cubic meters, and can be classified as a large sinkhole.

Zhang said that there are three large caves there, which are supposed to be remnants of the early evolution of the funnel. The primeval forest is well preserved at the bottom of the crater. The head of the expedition group of the Guangxi cave 702, Chen Lixin, said that the ancient trees growing on the bottom reach almost 40 meters in height, and dense shady plants reach a person's shoulders.

The expedition was completed on May 6, after the team members descended more than 100 meters and walked several hours to reach the bottom of the pit. They returned safely to earth on the evening of May 6.

Giant sinkholes, also known as Tiankeng (heavenly pit) in Chinese, are valleys or giant pits with special geological features found in karst areas formed by repeated landslides. They are mainly found in China, Mexico and Papua New Guinea.