Mexico State Sonora Has Half-Mile Crack In Ground: What Caused It?

There is a giant split on Mexican ground that has left scientists puzzled. The fissure, which is located in the Sonora state of northern Mexico, measures two-thirds of a mile in length, 15 feet in its widest portion, and 30 feet deep. Spanish-language news site Excelsior reports that the split in the ground was discovered on Tuesday night, roughly 50 miles away from the city of Hermosillo.

Since the discovery, a video of the fissure has be recorded by a drone (you can watch the video below) showing the exact nature of the split and how deep it is. As for the cause of the crack in the ground, there are several running theories.

The first, and most obvious, theory is seismic activity. Just last month, an earthquake hit the state of Chiapas, which borders Guatemala. According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the earthquake measured 6.9 on the Richter magnitude scale and the depth of the quake was measured to be 37 miles with an epicenter 127 miles west of Guatemala City. July also saw a 6.4 magnitude earthquake in the state of Veracruz.

Other experts believe that the crack in the ground has nothing to do with seismic activity. Instead, they believe an underground stream is responsible for eroding the ground. In fact, according to Mexican newspaper Expreso, who reported that the split was discovered on Friday instead of Tuesday, there has been heavy rainfall in the region leading up to the split formation.

"It's definitely not a cause for alarm for the population," said Martín Valencia Moreno, the head of the National Autonomous University of Mexico's Regional Station of the Geological Institute to Excelsior, as translated by the Huffington Post. Moreno added that "it's more something sensationalist and people like to encourage that sort of thing." What's more, Moreno reveals that he does not think seismic activity is responsible since "when a fault is generated the levels generally move and here we see people walking on both sides of the trench, the two levels are still in place, one side isn't raised and the other hasn't sunk either."