Plug pulled? Mexican river disappears into a sinkhole

The Atoyac River disappeared overnight in Mexico’s eastern state of Veracruz when a huge hole opened up in its riverbed, media report. Geologists presume the area’s limestone ground is to blame.

Residents of the area say they heard a loud bang and felt the earth rumble on Sunday night. It was only the next day that they found out what happened.

"On Monday, we realized that water had stopped flowing, so we went to investigate and found a hole that prevented the river from running within its banks,” local resident Juana Sanchez was quoted by Spanish agency EFE as saying.

The crack is around 30 meters long and 20 meters wide, local media say.

It reportedly took less than two days (just one day according to one source) for the hole in Atoyac’s riverbed to devour most of the water. A team of geologists from the local Department of Civil Defense and technicians from the National Water Commission (Conagua) have arrived at the scene to examine the the sinkhole. Experts say the phenomenon could have occurred due to the area’s unstable geological structure, namely its limestone base.

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