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About 50 meter long and four meter deep! On the Baltic Sea island Usedom (Mecklenburg-Western-Pomerania) the earth has opened up. The gaping ravine looks like the little brother of the Grand Canyon in the USA.

Did ancient hollows collapse? Or did a meteorite hit there? The hole gapes right in the middle of a field close to Zirchow. BILD reporter Andreas Weihrauch (21) discovered it while going for a walk. He believes: "Sand has collapsed here. There are patterns on the walls of the sinkhole." And: The ravine runs square into a little lake. "Mysterious bubbles are rising up there."

It bubbles suspiciously. Presumably the earth is going to move again in the coming days.

What happened here?

Harry Strohm (52) from the state agency for geology: "Probably surface water has trenched itself into this furrow. It's also possible that it's a previous drilling from GDR times. Because of the cavern created previously, the earth could have collapsed just now."

Until now there have mainly been sinkholes on the island of Rรผgen. Now Usedom is in also in danger. A geologist is therefore examining the hole closely, in order to find out if it is enlarging. Strohm: "This is really exciting! It however doesn't seem to look like a meteorite impact."