A massive sinkhole has doubled width since opening, now spanning 50 meters (164 feet) across, enough to cover the entire length of an Olympic-size swimming pool.
The hole opened up near an underground copper mine in Chile in late July. It stretches down a full 200 m (656 ft) – long enough to fit two copies of the Statue of Liberty on top of each other.
Specialist teams of geologists from Chile’s National Service of Geology and Mining, Sernageomin, were initially rushed to the Alcaparrosa site, which is operated by Canada’s Lundin Mining Corp and located about 665km north of the capital, Santiago.
Sharing aerial photos of the huge sinkhole, Sernageomin said on Twitter that they issued an order to immediately stop work in the area to evaluate the situation.
On Saturday, the agency said that the investigation was still ongoing.
In a statement last week, Lundin Mining said the sinkhole, which appears to be filled with “a lot of water”, did not affect any workers or community members.
It added that development work in an area of the Alcaparrosa underground mine has been temporarily stopped as a preventive measure and is being monitored continuously.
“The closest home is more than 600m (1,969ft) away from the sinkhole while any populated area or public service are almost a kilometre away from the affected zone,” the company said.
David Montenegro, Sernageomin’s director, said they have not detected any material inside the sinkhole, but said it has large quantities of water.
“There is a considerable distance, approximately 200 metres (656ft), to the bottom,” Mr Montenegro said. “We haven’t detected any material down there, but we have seen the presence of a lot of water.”
Lundin Mining controls 80 per cent of the property while the rest is held by Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation.
News of the sinkhole comes days after an incident in which a woman in New Zealand suffered severe injuries after she fell into a geothermal sinkhole at a popular tourist spot.
The woman, an Australian, was swallowed by the two-metre wide hole which burst open suddenly on a footpath in central North Island.
In May, a massive sinkhole discovered in China was found to be home to a forest with trees reportedly as tall as 131ft.
Reuters contributed to this report
