02 Jun 630 feet below the earth in China, an ancient forest blooms at the bottom of a sinkhole
In May, a team of spelunkers rappelled into the dark heart of a 192-meter deep sinkhole in China’s Guangxi region. Near the southern border, Guangxi is home to an otherworldly landscape of mountainous rock riveted by cave tunnels, cutting through pools of jade green water and a lush thick of trees.
It is among China’s most beautiful terrain, marred by 30 giant, sunken swaths of earth—tiankeng, or “heavenly pits,” in Mandarin.
A waterfall of 188 meters high and 30 meters wide in Guangxi, China. pic.twitter.com/rIcnMDR69i
— Lijian Zhao 赵立坚 (@zlj517) April 21, 2022
Xianggong Mountain is located between the Mural Hill and Yellow Cloth Shoal in Xingping Town of Yangshuo, Guangxi of China. Xianggong Mountain is about 28 km from Yangshuo and 57 km from Guilin. The mountain is a popular tourist destination beloved by enthusiastic photographers pic.twitter.com/ytAa2QW04X
— The Silk Road (@thesilkroad) May 24, 2022
Rice terraces in early morning mist in Guangxi, China | Photography by ©Thierry Bornier pic.twitter.com/TLIr79hcyR
— Piclogy (@Piclogy) April 5, 2022
But this newly discovered sinkhole—deep enough to swallow the United States’ tallest national monument, St. Louis’ Gateway Arch—houses an even more majestic world. At its bottom, the expeditionists found a flourishing prehistoric forest, with 40-meter tall trees branching skyward to a faraway circle of sunlight. The growth of the forest floor, meanwhile, could bury a person up to the shoulder.
“Giant sinkhole with a forest inside found in China” https://t.co/oQ4bLL1cDY pic.twitter.com/csuUvxHNd3
— pourmecoffee (@pourmecoffee) May 11, 2022
As described by Chinese news outlets, it sounds like a near-mythical realm—a fantasy of Narnia, or the kingdom of Middle Earth—and its promise for biologists and geologists is no less thrilling. Scientists believe the forest could harbor previously unknown plant or animal species, as sinkholes can offer an oasis for life to bloom. Such “ancient” or “primitive” ecosystems have never been disturbed by humans. And they are natural jewels for study, offering a glance at what our planet might’ve looked like in primeval times devoid of mankind’s intrusion.
“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,” Chen Lixin, who led the trek through the sinkhole’s forest, told China’s Xinhua news.
Scientists have discovered a hidden forest inside a massive sinkhole in China https://t.co/B6urJtrRs6 pic.twitter.com/ET1aIatWK2
— CNN (@CNN) May 23, 2022
Guangxi is one of the world’s richest treasure troves of karst topography—found mostly in China, Mexico, and Papua New Guinea—where dramatic landscapes are formed by eroding underground bedrock. In such climates, rainwater runs first through soil—becoming gradually more acidic as it saps carbon dioxide from the earth—and then flows through cracks in the bedrock, hollowing it away into sprawling webs of limestone chambers, pillars, bridges, and tunnels. If the chambers grow large enough, they collapse inward and a sinkhole is born.
According to NASA, 13% of China is karst topography, including the world’s largest sinkhole, Xiaozhai Tiankeng, at 662 meters deep in Chongqing. Set upon a massive underground river, it also houses a robust forest ecosystem connected to a network of caves, much like Guangxi’s unnamed site.
Scientists now hope to illuminate its untold secrets, hidden in the tiny universes of heaven’s Earthly craters.
The Xiaozhai Tiankeng (小寨天坑), also known as the Heavenly Pit, is the world’s deepest sinkhole [read more: https://t.co/9YYHXG8iLi] pic.twitter.com/ebJsoWtYE2
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) July 11, 2021
Source: Fast Company
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