Valladolid cenote | Carol Chapman

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Videotaping Zaci Cenote in Valladolid, Yucatan, Mexico

Carol Chapman videotaping Zaci Cenote in Valladolid, Yucatan, Mexico Photo by John Chapman

Here I am videotaping the cenote, or sinkhole, in Valladolid, Yucatan, Mexico. This Valladolid cenote, called Zaci, is featured in the Yucatan Travel Movie. There are many of these sinkholes throughout the state of Yucatan and its nearby state of Quintana Roo. The fresh water within the cenotes provided water for the indigenous Mayan people, because the northern Yucatan Peninsula does not have rivers, streams, or lakes–no surface water. Rainwater trickles down through the limestone earth of the northern Yucatan Peninsula to form underwater rivers. The cenotes provide openings to the underwater rivers. I love the deep turquoise color of the water.

Sinkhole Forms in Guatemala City

Can you believe it? In the Yucatan Travel Movie, we visit a cenote or sinkhole in the lovely colonial town of Valladolid, Mexico.

In the movie, narrator Miriam Balsley says, “Not to worry,” because cenotes formed millions of years ago. . . . or anyway, the sinkhole or cenote in Valladolid formed millions of years ago. It is a huge cave in solid limestone with an open ceiling.

It turns out that one formed two days ago obliterating an intersection in Guatemala City. The hole is 60 feet in diameter and 30 stories deep. It swallowed a three-story apartment building.

According to an online National Geographic article by Ker Than:

Sinkholes are natural depressions that can form when water-saturated soil and other particles become too heavy and cause the roofs of existing voids in the soil to collapse.

Another way sinkholes can form is if water enlarges a natural fracture in a limestone bedrock layer. As the crack gets bigger, the topsoil gently slumps, eventually leaving behind a sinkhole.

Sinkhole in Guatemala: Giant Could Get Even Bigger

Coincidentally, Miriam is in Guatemala at this time taking a Spanish language intensive. Fortunately, she is far from Guatemala City right now. Yesterday, she and other students in her school, helped to clean up a mudslide cause by Tropical Storm Agatha. Flooding water from the tropical storm is considered to be a cause of the sinkhole collapse in Guatemala City.