GEOLOGICAL UPHEAVAL: Land Subsidence Continues in China - Explosion Dislodges Massive Boulders in Chongqing; Flattening Cars Below as Hundreds Evacuate Area!

It looks like the scene from a deadly earthquake. But miraculously no one was killed, after two rocks weighing a combined 300 tons rolled down a cliff and flattened two parked cars in Chongqing, southwest China.  The rocks smashed a seven-foot wide and three-feet deep pit in the road, and created a huge crack in the paving.  Despite hitting a number of cars, no one was killed, although there were several lucky escapes. One of the vehicles - a delivery truck with 2,500 boxes of beer on it - was hit while moving.  The smaller of the two rocks fell further down the mountain, but the larger boulder- weighing 200 tons - remained on the road, crushing two cars.

Safety measures: the falling rocks have led to hundreds of people being evacuated from the mountain area.

One of the lucky drivers, named Sun, was driving behind the truck and was about to overtake it before he saw a car coming the other way that potentially saved his life.  'The beer lorry was only four metres ahead of me, when two rocks, a big one and a small one, rolled down fast one after another,' said Sun.  'The first smaller rock missed the lorry. After smashing a parked car on the roadside, it continued to roll down the valley.  'Then a bigger rock rolled down, and hit onto the rear part of the beer lorry. With two explosions, the beers exploded and broken glass shot out in all directions. And the beer bubbles covered my windscreen, which was quickly smashed by shooting beer bottle glass.'  Sun got out of his vehicle to see two parked cars flattened by the boulder, just a few feet away from him. 

Experts believe the rocks fell from a point 200 metres higher up in the mountains, and that they could only be removed with explosions.  The local government has had to evacuate residents living 1,000 metres below the road for fear of more rocks falling..  The beer lorry driver, Li, felt his vehicle grind to a halt when the back end was crushed by the boulder. 'I didn't hear anything until I heard a loud explosion and my vehicle stopped going forward,' he said.  Li did not let the shock affect his work however: He was still picking up unbroken beers from the ground and waiting for repairmen to fix the vehicle at the end of the day.  One driver, with five people in his car had overtaken the beer truck as he was driving quickly to make time. They passed the point on the road just before the rocks fell.  'Scrap glass was shooting into our car like bullets, and our rear window was all smashed. The glass also shot into the car, and cut two of us. The left front tyre was also shot flat,' said Xu, the driver.  'We quickly ran out of the car for our lives.'  A pedicab driver also escaped death. He was almost hit by the 2nd falling giant rock but immediately changed direction and tipped over on the road. He had slight injuries and went to the hospital alone. - Daily Mail.

GEOLOGICAL UPHEAVAL: Land Subsidence Continues in China - Huge Sinkhole Swallows Minibus in Guangxi Zhuang!

A sinkhole engulfed a minibus Thursday morning in Guilin, south China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, injuring the vehicle's driver.

Sinkhole engulfs minibus in Southern China, driver injured. Image: © CFP/Dong Hua.

Image: © CFP/Dong Hua.

The incident was a geological disaster that happened around 4 a.m. on Fuxing Road in the city's Qixing district. It left a big hole which is 4 meters long, 2.5 meters wide and 2 meters deep. The driver, the only person in the minibus, was being treated in hospital. - People's Daily Online.

GEOLOGICAL UPHEAVAL: Land Subsidence Continues in China - Xixiangtang Sinkhole Forces 844 People to Evacuate!

A sinkhole in Southern China has caused 844 people to evacuate their homes, which have been deemed unsafe. 

The Huffington Post reports that the sinkhole, which is about 1.5 meters (5 feet) deep and 2.5 meters (8 feet) wide, has already caused one building to collapse, It has also caused six buildings to tilt and one to crack, although no injuries have been reported.  The Xinhua News Agency, the official news, reported that the sinkhole occurred on Saturday near a middle school in Nanning city's Xixiangtang district after the school dug a well in hopes of easing a water shortage in the area.  According to The Washington Post, more than 800 villagers had to be evacuate in China's Guangxi province. Sinkholes have been fairly commong in china in recent years, which is known for its karst topography.

The sinkholes and land cracks have been common because of intense construction and mining activities in the past years, along with insufficient geological regulation.  The last documented sinkhole in China opened in the middle of a street in April of this year, and a girl, who was walking along the street while talking on her phone, walked into it. Gawker reports that the girl fell into a sinkhole which was about 6 meters deep in China's Xi'an city.  A cab driver who was passing by and saw the collapse helped rescue here, climbing down the hold using a loose cable, which was hanging beneath the walkway. Firefighters showed up, bringing a ladder with them, and helped her out.  According to Gawker, cabbie Wang Wei recalled: "The ladder kept moving about, it's a little flimsy and the girl kept screaming out of fear. So I told her to go first and I'll be right behind her. Finally we managed to get out." - Inquisitr.

GEOLOGICAL UPHEAVAL: Land Subsidence Continues in China - 3 Dead, 1 Missing in Chongqing Rain-Triggered Landslide!

Three people have died and one remains missing since torrential rain began to hit southwest China's Chongqing municipality on Monday, local authorities said Wednesday.

The victims included one farmer who was killed in a house collapse and two construction workers who died in a rain-triggered landslide, according to a statement from the municipal flood control and drought relief headquarters.

A total of 37,100 local people were affected in 19 towns among five counties and districts in the municipality. Direct economic loss is estimated at 11 million yuan (1.74 million U.S. dollars), the statement said.

Chongqing is expected to encounter another round of thunderstorms on Thursday. - CRI.

GEOLOGICAL UPHEAVAL: Land Subsidence Continues in China - Astoundingly Massive Road Collapse in the Shaanxi Province!

May 27, 2012, Zhu Road, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province and the North Second Ring Cross north about 600 meters, mechanical and electrical market across the road suddenly collapse, Reporters on the scene, the road collapsed to a length of 15 m and a width of 10 m , about 6 meters of the pit.

The pit has a diameter of about one meter of pipeline rupture, fracture thickness of about 10 cm, exposing rusting steel bar at the top right of the fracture pipeline with a diameter of about 20 cm pipe with water flowing constantly; in the pit side through a gas pipeline from the pit the middle; a few black cable hanging in the air on the other side, there are a lot of cement and soil, feel the cable will break at any time fall; the bottom of the pit, sink roadbed and loess and cracked pipes.  Parked in the pit around the nearly 30 construction vehicles, the construction team of more than 70 people on standby by the Municipal Power Supply Bureau, gas companies and water companies.     "If a vehicle traveling in the incident point on the road, the consequences would be disastrous!" Via Liwei Chun said here of the public. Reporters on the scene saw the pits take up two lanes and part of the green belt. The accident took place traffic is not large, and even less in the morning. "Near a traffic police said the accident caused no casualties. It is understood that after the incident, the water company and other related departments rushed to the scene to deal with, in order to prevent the occurrence of secondary disasters.

Yesterday morning, the gas company's staff carefully the natural gas pipeline with a rope tied, and then the other end of the rope tied to the side of the road green belt. "Gas pipeline vacant more than three meters to worry about broken, temporarily take such reinforcement measures." Staff said.  Reporters on the scene, the accident near the part of the road one way or another more than 200 meters long cordon, and manned to prevent oncoming vehicles from a distance is too late to brake, crushed near the more vulnerable of the roadbed. There are cracks in the wall near the road and roadside. Until about 11  "The reason is still under investigation." 8 o'clock in the evening of 27, said Vice Minister of Operations Department at the construction site of Xi'an Water Industry Operations Limited pipe network gold may roadbed sinking severing the pipeline pipe seepage make The roadbed sinking, it is difficult to judge.  Gold, vice minister said that the broken pipe diameter of 1 meters, built thirty years ago, has become obsolete and can not continue to use the same time, the pipeline has been included in the transformation plan, "I never expected not to transform, an accident . "  Theoretically the life of the cement pipe is about 50 years, but often do not have such a long time, and production processes, materials and other site an official said, at present, Xi'an part of the aging pipeline, most of the listed into the transformation plan.  Why the formation of Tai Hang? On-site construction of the municipal staff explained that Xi'an is a wet land subsidence, water seepage, it is easy to sink In addition, there may be heavy vehicles passing by the road. Currently, the pipeline has been cut off from Fengcheng Road to the North Second Ring segment. - ENORTH News [Translated].