Earth Changes - Sink Holes & Landslides

BURITICUPU, Brazil (Reuters) - The city of Buriticupu, in the northeastern tip of the Brazilian Amazon, is being slowly swallowed by the earth. In recent weeks, huge sinkholes, several meters (feet) deep, have led the municipal government to declare a state of emergency.

Some 1,200 people of total 55,000 population are at risk of having their homes tip into the widening abyss.

"In the space of the last few months, the dimensions have expanded exponentially, approaching substantially closer to the residences," an emergency decree issued by the city government earlier this month said about the sinkholes.

Massive sinkholes put hundreds in Amazonian town at risk