Must see:
– Tropical Storm Agatha floods kill 150, cause gigantic sinkhole in Guatemala City
On June 4 the road surface suddenly collapsed on the Zhejiang Huang Qu Nan highway
After the spectacular picture of a sinkhole in Guatemala caused by tropical storm Agatha, the Chinese internet has been abuzz with reports of large numbers of the eerily circular formations suddenly appearing across China.
Even straight-laced old Xinhua has got the bug, reporting (in one of those sensationalist, stability-busting headlines for China’s state news agency is renowned): “Cave-ins found in many areas of China”
On May 27th Mr. Hou discovered a sinkhole while irrigating his rice field
I’m sure there are lots of excellent geological, meteorological and man-made reasons why these things appear – earthquakes, droughts, old coal mine workings – but that would be far too boring for the febrile minds of China’s 400m netizens.
And looking at the pictures, I half-share their collective shiver of anticipation that these things are unnatural portents of catastrophe.
On April 27, several sinkholes appeared one after another in Yinbin City
The end-of-the-world-is-nigh movie 2012 (was that the worst film ever made?) was a big hit in China, so it’s no surprise that lots of the discussion of these apparitions in the earth make reference to that.
Read moreSpectacular Sinkholes in China: Are there any reasonable explanations?