Libya is trying to determine the causes of mysterious cracks in the ground

Libya is investigating the causes of mysterious cracks in the ground. Deep crevasses formed in the area of the olive farms of Esbiya, 40 km south of the capital Tripoli, causing panic among the population.

Representatives of the Ministry of the Environment, local environmentalists and groundwater specialists joined the case. The cracks vary from 15 to 200 meters in length, in the region of four meters in width, while, as noted, all sinkholes have a relatively shallow depth, the largest sinkhole goes into the thickness of the earth by half a meter.

According to farmers, the faults appeared last year, but recently they have begun to grow. Local residents fear that the appearance of cracks may be related to the earthquake that occurred in September 2023 in Morocco, which claimed the lives of more than three thousand people. Then information appeared in local media and social networks about craters up to 60 meters deep, which geologists explained by the movement of tectonic plates.

According to geophysicist engineer Hakim al-Maslyati, the country's largest El Aziziya fault is located in the western region, which stretches for 300 km and captures, among other things, the Esbiya farm area. "It is very vulnerable to tremors and earthquakes, and the causes of its occurrence may well be related to the movement of tectonic plates," he said.

Experts, meanwhile, put forward another hypothesis for the appearance of cracks in the ground: near Esbia, groundwater is rising, water comes to the surface, floods areas, forcing residents to leave their homes. According to the head of the monitoring group for the situation, Saleh al-Sadeq, the cracks are superficial and shallow, but their occurrence is not associated with the rise of groundwater, but rather with the subsidence of the soil. "In any case, it is too early to draw final conclusions, further monitoring of the faults is required," he concluded.