First discovered by specialists in 1994 , the reality ’s recondite sinkhole can be line up in Fengjie County , Chongqing Municipality , China . Xiaozhai Tiankeng , or the Xiaozhai Heavenly Pit , measure roughly 537 meters ( 1,762 feet ) in diameter and sinks between 511 and 662 meters ( 1,667 - 2,172 foot ) into the Earth .
With near erect wall , the book of this momentous geological feature is a whopping 119.349 million cubic meters ( around 4.2 billion three-dimensional feet ) . During large rains , a falls can sometimes be seen cascading down the fix ’s unconscionable walls . The structure is double nuzzle , meaning it ’s comprised of two distinct “ bowls ” dissecting it into two layers , with each bowl measuring over 300 metre ( 984 foot ) deep .
The Difeng cave , which thesinkholesits atop , was formed by a powerful underground river . This river can now be seen in the depths of the infernal region where it carries exculpated urine through the inner cave systems .
The river race for just about 8.5 kilometers ( 5.3 statute mile ) from the underground Tianjing crack gorge before reaching daylight at the vertical cliff of the Migong River where the clandestine water system of rules forms a 46 - meter ( 151 - foot ) high falls .
There are 1,285 coinage of file plant in the depths of the Xiaozhai sinkhole , creating its own thriving , unique , and rare ecosystem . Ginkgo biloba , a rare specie of tree diagram , can be establish living in the stone , as well as rarified fauna specie like the sunless leopard , of which there are estimate to be few than10,000 in the wild .
find in a large karst area , the sinkhole is represent of Triassic limestone bump in thick gross blocks . It is believed to have formed step by step throughout the last 128,000 class , making it relatively vernal in age when compare to other sink in the area .
In fact , China is nursing home to anumber of sinkholes , referred to broadly as “ tiankeng ” . The word of honor tiankeng means “ heavenly infernal region ” or “ sky hole ” in Chinese , and concern to a very specific mathematical group of geological structures .
To be a tiankeng , the sink must be at least 100 meters ( 328 feet ) recondite and wide , with a river flowing through the bottom . All tiankeng are comprised of carbonate rock , with the elision of two Venezuelan structure that consist of sandstone . They’reformedthrough a karst process when their composition is carbonate rock , and a suffusion outgrowth when made of sandstone .
The conditions call for to form a tiankeng are very specific , making their organisation rare . The rock must be above sea stage , and be fatheaded with no level of impurities . expectant rainfall is also required to take form these structures , which in turn help form their underground river .
Although the term refers to any sinkhole within these touchstone , of the 75 place , 50 of the big are found in China , hence the Chinese term becoming the commonplace name for such structures .
