Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 June 1894 — Queer Goings-on in Chili. [ARTICLE]

Queer Goings-on in Chili.

A remarkable occurrence has takea place on a hill called Cerro Negro, situated in the mineral district of Condoriaco. At a spot on this hill between the Molle gully on the west and the Tocobano gully on the east an enormous subsidence of ground has taken place. The length of the subsidence is four squares by two and a half in width, or in round numbers about forty English acres. The depth of the subsidence for about half its length is eighteen metres, and from eight to ten in the other half. About the centre there is an eminence resembling an island, which is surrounded by a fosse of from fifteen to twenty metres deep. The surface of the subsidence is broken here and there by fissures of varying depths, and toward the centre the ground is formed of a light powder in which a man who was attempting to reach the centre sank up to his waist. All the springs of water in the adjacent gulleys have become completely dry. All round the eminence in the centre of the subsidence the earth appears to be in movement as if trickling into a depth below. On the side of the subsidence great pieces of the hill appear to be in process of segregation, and enormous landslides appear to be imminent. The trees and scrub on this side of the hill are withered and appear to be dying, No gases or vaport issue from the fissures in the ground. A Government engineer has been sent to the spot to study this extraordinary phenomenon.—[Chilian Times.