(ETH) – Rome has been declared the European capital of sinkholes thanks to a network of ancient Roman and medieval tunnels that have caused the city’s streets to be consumed by giant chasms.
There are fears growing in Rome about the speed that the underground tunnels and quarries are causing collapses, as there is an average of 100 sinkholes appearing every year, according to The Times. Earlier this week, two parked cars, a Mercedes SUV and a Smart car, shockingly disappeared into a six-meter-deep and 20-meter-long chasm in the Torpignattara district.
Nobody was injured in the collapse, which has been linked to a mains leak in a garage below the street, according to The Guardian. The sinkhole is only the latest in a long line of ‘disastrous’ collapses across the capital of Italy, as an eight-foot chasm appeared in May last year, while a huge 30ft sinkhole also notably swallowed six cars back in 2018.
Sinkholes are caused by the destabilizing combination of the region’s sandy soil and layers of old ruins that much of the modern city was built atop, which weaken the ground above. It is believed that water getting into the underground spaces has caused the ancient tunnels to collapse at a much quicker rate in recent years.
‘The rate has more than doubled in the last decade and Rome now has the European record for sinkholes,’ said Dr. Stefania Nisio, a geologist at Italy’s higher institute for environmental research and protection.
The geologist has previously claimed that the weakest area of the city is eastern Rome, which was where materials were quarried in ancient times. The network of ancient tunnels has caused sinkholes in Rome for many years, but experts believe the problem is rapidly getting worse, with an average of 100 chasms now appearing every year in the city. READ MORE
