This is what we know about this sinkhole.
How did the sinkhole come about?
These types of sinkholes can arise from natural causes or as a result of human activity. One of the reasons is the heavy rains that fell in the area in July.
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“You have several layers in the soil and there are several ways in which the water can erode,” Chilean geophysicist Cristian Farías, director of Civil Works and Geology at the Catholic University of Temuco, told BBC Mundo.
“When a lot of rainwater falls on soils with a high level of gypsum, the water percolates and erodes the entire lower part for several days, which makes the higher part less sustainable and ends up causing a collapse,” he explained.
A second hypothesis points to the influence of mining activity in the area.
“The preliminary information that is handled points to the intervention of the mining company that overexploited minerals in that area,” explained Cristóbal Muñoz, director of the informative NGO Red Geocientífica de Chile to the British media.
The mining intervention could have destabilized the soil by diverting groundwater from its natural course and emptying the aquifers, creating spaces that favor the ground giving way and falling under its own weight, forming the sinkhole.
The miner said in a statement that it had been informed in due time to the regulator.