The Largest Sink Hole on Earth
Expeditions Led By Charles Brewer-Carías
Expeditions Led By Charles Brewer-Carías
The Largest Sink Hole on Earth By Charles Brewer-Carías
The largest sink hole on Earth is at the Sarisariñama plateau in the Guayana Highlands of the Bolivar State of Venezuela, at 1350 meters above sea level. This sink hole or “Sima de hundimiento” is an inverted cone cavity 352 meters wide at the mouth and 500 meters at the bottom and is 350 meters deep, holding 18.000.000 cubic meters of air. This cavity is so large, that if a building like the Empire State Building of New York would be set inside, it would not reach the edge, and from the bottom one can not distinguish the shape of the persons standing at the edge. The next largest pit or sink hole or cenote or Sótano is El Sótano del Barro in Querétaro, Mexico, with 15.000.000 cubic meters of space, and the third is El Sótano de las Golondrinas 500 meters deep also in Mexico. Others large holes are the 49 pits or gouffres discovered near Hanzhong in China and it is also important to mention the large Hang Son Doong cave in Vietnam, made popular because of the National Geographic pictures and it´s 70 meter high speleothems, the largest on earth, but it does not have any space as large as the Mexican or as the Sarisariñama Sink Hole.
This pit or Sink hole at Sarisariñama plateau was a great empty dome carved out by a subterranean river loaded with sand, millions of years ago in the crystal like very hard quartzite rock, and a final rock slide occurred when the key rock from this gigantic void dome sank in and collapsed. The other sink holes on earth were made by the dissolving action of the water in the soft calcareous rocks where they are. So this Sarisariñama Sink Hole is also the largest in a quartzite substrate.'’
This pit or Sink hole at Sarisariñama plateau was a great empty dome carved out by a subterranean river loaded with sand, millions of years ago in the crystal like very hard quartzite rock, and a final rock slide occurred when the key rock from this gigantic void dome sank in and collapsed. The other sink holes on earth were made by the dissolving action of the water in the soft calcareous rocks where they are. So this Sarisariñama Sink Hole is also the largest in a quartzite substrate.'’
The Expeditions
Eight years before these SLAR radar images, we had been flying in the area while shipping on board a DC3 airplane some goods needed by Daniel Barandiarán, a friend and former missionary priest, who was starting a mission at Canaracuni, an indian village at the south cliffs of what would be known later as the Sarisariñama plateau.
During one of these flights over unknown mountains, with no radar of GPS to guide the pilots through, the sink holes were sighted for the first time and we estimated that the diameter of the main sink hole at Sarisariñama could be some twenty times the wing span of the DC 3 airplane. When we mentioned the sink holes to the Makiritare Indians that were at the mission, they told us that an old legend of theirs mentioned that there was a lake in those mountains where Orosha, the evil spirit dwelled in the underground. On Jan 4th 1965, I decided to climb the Sarisariñama mountain’s southern cliff, starting from the Canaracuni Indian mission, and after it took us a whole day to reach the summit, my two indian companions and I slept there. In the morning we investigated the possibility that in a future expedition, I could reach these sink holes from that place,but then I found out that because of the great crevasses and the distance to walk, that it would not possible. So I decided to find another way to reach the lake or what ever was in that place and discover it and to uncover the veil that had kept that secret since the beginning of time and to share that knowledge with the rest of the world. While returning from our climb I gathered several pineapple shaped plants that were common on the rocks and the botanist Julian Steyermark, with whom I would later share great expeditions, named one of these new species as Navia breweri.
During one of these flights over unknown mountains, with no radar of GPS to guide the pilots through, the sink holes were sighted for the first time and we estimated that the diameter of the main sink hole at Sarisariñama could be some twenty times the wing span of the DC 3 airplane. When we mentioned the sink holes to the Makiritare Indians that were at the mission, they told us that an old legend of theirs mentioned that there was a lake in those mountains where Orosha, the evil spirit dwelled in the underground. On Jan 4th 1965, I decided to climb the Sarisariñama mountain’s southern cliff, starting from the Canaracuni Indian mission, and after it took us a whole day to reach the summit, my two indian companions and I slept there. In the morning we investigated the possibility that in a future expedition, I could reach these sink holes from that place,but then I found out that because of the great crevasses and the distance to walk, that it would not possible. So I decided to find another way to reach the lake or what ever was in that place and discover it and to uncover the veil that had kept that secret since the beginning of time and to share that knowledge with the rest of the world. While returning from our climb I gathered several pineapple shaped plants that were common on the rocks and the botanist Julian Steyermark, with whom I would later share great expeditions, named one of these new species as Navia breweri.
Above photos shows the Guacharo face with a palm fruit, and jungle palms seeds, Click on the photos to enlarge.
" The main seeds in my hand came from three jungle palms that the Guacharo eats. The purple fleshy covered is from the palm Jessenia bataua the one with scales is Mauritiella armata and the one painted and not rough is Socratea exorhiza, plus a long nut from a fruit of the Lauraceae family ( the same plant family that of the Avocado ).As you may understand, because of the scale given to the seeds when compared with the hand and the then the size of the same nut in his beck, shows that this bird is big.. and terrifying noisy if you don´t know that they where there, flying in the middle of the night at the bottom of the Sarisariñama Sink holes." - Charles Brewer-Carías
Photo above shows Charles on a mountain of seeds from the Jessenia bataua palm (Seje) seeds
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