It is not often that geologists come upon a previously hidden outstanding find but it looks like those in New Zealand were blessed with this opportunity. What do we mean by this? Well, a massive sinkhole appeared between two dairy farms which is by far one of the biggest sinkholes that happened. However, this event is not the biggest surprise but what was hidden in this sinkhole is.
60 thousand years old volcanic crater
A farm hand that was driving a motorcycle at dawn was the one to discover this sinkhole by almost falling into it. The sinkhole is 200 meters long and at certain points it is 20 meters wide and just as deep, reports say, so the farmhand was lucky not to fall in it because he would have ended up with a number of broken bones.
Now, while the size of the sinkhole is truly impressive for the region where it appeared, geologists are more interested in analyzing what they can glimpse at the bottom of the sinkhole, namely the volcanic rock of a very old crater. Due to heavy rain scientists believe that the hole will only get bigger with time until these rains stop.
At first glance the crater looks to have around 10 meter of sediment back when the crater was filled with water, creating a small lake, and above that there a couple of meters which geologists believe contain volcanic ash. However, they will need to do more investigations in order to understand where this volcanic crater came from, how was it formed and if there is any chance of it still being active or not.
With heavy rains still scheduled to happen in that part of New Zealand they will have to wait for a bit until the weather will allow them to look at the crater.
As our second lead editor, Anna C. Mackinno provides guidance on the stories Great Lakes Ledger reporters cover. She has been instrumental in making sure the content on the site is clear and accurate for our readers. If you see a particularly clever title, you can likely thank Anna. Anna received a BA and and MA from Fordham University.