In China’s Guangxi region, scientists discovered a secret forest inside a sinkhole with trees that grow 130 feet tall. It could contain plants and animal species that have never been found
There are 30 sinkholes in China’s Leye County. This is the largest, at 306 metres long, 150 metres wide and 192 metres deep. Image Courtesy: Guangxi speleology research team 702
An ancient forest has been discovered at the bottom of a giant sinkhole in southern China’s Guangxi region with trees towering over 130 feet. The forest is said to be prehistoric.
According to the state news agency Xinhua, the sinkhole measures 306 metres in length, is 150 metres in width and 192 metres in depth, with its volume exceeding five million cubic metres. Among the 30 sinkholes in Leye Country, this is the largest. Sinkholes such as these are known in Chinese as Tiankeng, or “heavenly pit”.
Zhang Yuanhai, a senior engineer at the Institute of Karst Geology of the China Geological Survey, told Xinhua that the site had three caves in its walls and a well-preserved primitive forest at the bottom.
Possibility of new species
The sinkhole was discovered by cave explorers outside Ping’e village in Leye County. A team of explorers entered the pit on May 6, where they found ancient trees and other plants.
Scientists trekked for hours to get to the bottom of the sinkhole. “I wouldn’t be surprised to know that there are species found in these caves that have never been reported or described by science until now,” said Chen Lixin, who led the expedition team, according to Guardian.
“The expedition team found a large piece of wild plantain at the bottom of the pit, as well as a rare square bamboo. However, there was no cave connecting the underground river at the bottom of the pit, and it is estimated that the underground river has been diverted,” the Guangxi Daily newspaper reported.
Sinkholes and Karst landscape
A sinkhole is a depression in the ground that has no natural external surface drainage, according to the US Geological Survey.
The sinkhole-filled landscape is known as a karst landscape, formed primarily by the dissolution of bedrock by groundwater.
Karst is a type of topography, ideal for geological wonders like the sinkhole in Leye County, created by groundwater dissolving the limestone rock beneath the surface, according to the United States Geological Survey.
About 13 per cent of China is covered by karst topography, according to NASA, with the Guangxi region being a prime example of its beauty, reports NPR.
Sinkholes in China
The Guangxi region has the highest number of sinkholes found in a single area.
In November 2019, Xinhua Net reported the discovery of a giant cluster of 49 sinkholes in a 230-square-mile patch of land in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The largest of the sinkholes has a diameter of 1,706 feet and a depth of 1,050 feet.
In 2016, 49 sinkholes were found by researchers in the Hanzhong area of northwest China’s Shaanxi Province. It was the largest cluster in the world.
While sinkholes can be fascinating, they can also be deadly. In China, the mining of coal, zinc, lead and iron ore deposits in karst areas have been associated with the formation of sinkholes because of human activity, according to a 1997 paper published in the journal Environmental Geology.
In 2020, six people were killed when a sinkhole swallowed a bus and a number of pedestrians in northwest China. In 2021, during floods in Zhengzhou, a piece of the road collapsed, forming a deep hole that sucked in several people.
The reason why some areas are more prone to such depressions is that they fall in the region known as the South China Karst, a UNESCO World Heritage site, reports Independent. The sinkholes found in the region can appear much more majestic than in others because of the rugged beauty of the surrounding landscape.
With inputs from agencies
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