A 6.4 magnitude earthquake that hit Croatia in December has left a region in the middle of the country covered with sinkholes, the Associated Press reported on Friday.
Josip Terzic, a geologists from the Croatian Geological Survey, said the sinkholes emerged because soil sitting on limestone rocks became saturated with groundwater. Scientists say the sinkholes are particularly unusual.
The quake that sparked them on 29 December quake claimed the lives of seven people and heavily damaged infrastructure. Residents in the region have spotted more than 100 sinkholes over the last two months, some of which are on farmland and near houses.
“Experts say that these sinkholes would have formed naturally anyway over time, but the earthquake acted as sort of a catalyst which sped up the whole process, unfortunately,” said Nenad Tomasevic, a teacher from Mecencani, one of the hardest-hit villages.