Quick Facts
name: Tiankeng, or “Cave in Heaven”
position: Southwest China’s Guizhou Province, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Yunnan Province, Chongqing Municipality
Coordinate: 24.853407656078527, 106.74287500000897
Why it’s great: A massive sinkhole in China creates a landscape that looks as if someone has taken a hole punch to it.
One look at the giant sinkholes dotting southwest China and it’s easy to see why they’re called “heavenly holes,” which means “holes in the sky” in Chinese. Not only do the sinkholes look like they’ve been cookie-cutter-ripped out of the landscape, but they also hold pristine forests and untouched ecosystems, according to the State Forestry Administration of China. UNESCO Courier.
Southwest China is home to karst landscapes, limestone formations that are highly prone to collapse. Over hundreds of thousands of years, rainwater trickling through the soil and seeping into the bedrock gradually eroded the limestone. The slightly acidic flow of water caused cracks to widen, forming tunnels and caves, until the rock ceiling could no longer be supported. As a result, it collapsed to the bottom, creating a huge sinkhole.
According to Zhu Xuewen, a researcher at the Institute of Karst Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, China’s sky caves are unique.
Related: The world’s deepest blue hole has been discovered and is thought to contain hidden caves and tunnels
The hole in the sky The world’s largest sinkhole In particular, the Xiaozhai Tiankeng in Fengjie county in south-central China is the deepest sinkhole on Earth. To be considered a skyhole, a sinkhole must be at least 330 feet (100 meters) deep and wide, Xue Wen told a state-run Chinese magazine. Sixth ToneXue Wen said the tiankeng caves must also have steep slopes and rivers running beneath them, or the ghosts of ancient rivers. Xue said that in the rainy season, for example, Xiaozhai Tiankeng has an underground river that meanders through a network of caves. BBC.
There are about 200 sky caves in China, mostly distributed from Shaanxi Province in the center to Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in the southwest. One third of the country is made up of karst topography. — a larger percentage of the total land area than any other country in the world — Just under one-fifth in the United States.
“Regional differences in geology, climate and other factors can result in dramatically different ways that karst features appear at the surface.” George VeniHe is a hydrogeologist specializing in karst landscapes and director of the National Cave and Karst Institute. He previously told Live Science“China has some of the most amazing karst formations, with giant sinkholes and huge cave entrances. In other parts of the world, you could walk across karst formations and not notice anything.”
Despite their size, China’s sky mines are hard to find amid the rugged mountains and lush forests that cover much of the southwestern part of the country, so dozens have only been discovered in recent years.
The latest discovery was made in May 2022 in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, which is UNESCO World Heritage Site The cave has not been discovered since 2007. Caving teams descended into the sinkhole near Pingjiang village in Leye County and discovered a hole 630 feet (192 meters) deep and up to 1,004 feet (306 meters) wide. This discovery brings the number of known sky mines in Leye to 30. Xinhua News Agency.
At the bottom of the sinkhole was a primeval forest with ancient trees up to 131 feet (40 meters) tall and dense undergrowth as high as a person’s shoulders, expedition leader Chen Lixin told Xinhua.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if we find species in these caves that have never been reported or described by science before,” Liksin said.
