A photo captured by a hunting company in Wyoming revealing this massive crack in the earth went immediately viral, where it is located in the Bighorn Mountains, specifically around the mountains' foothills, last October 24.
SNS Outfitter & Guides spotted this crack that is 10 miles down south of Ten Sleep town in Washakie County, Wyoming. "The Gash" is so colossal that it can swallow several football fields.
Scientists are still figuring out the main cause of this crack, sinkhole formations where experts believe that this gash in the earth is triggered by a slow moving landslide by increased rainfall, combined with moisture originating from a spring near the area, creating a landslide starting on one side of the mountains.
According to Seth Wittke of the Wyoming Geological Survey who manages geological and groundwater mapping, there are many factors that could have caused this, like moisture from the subsurface that can trigger some weakness under the soil or geology or any process that can weaken bedrock and cause instability.
Apart from this, SNS Outfitter & Guides also consulted an engineer from Riverton, Wyoming who also surveyed the region. According to the company where they posted online, a wet spring may have provided some lubrication across a cap rock and a small spring located on either side, may have caused the bottom rock to slide out, resulting in 10 to 20 million yards of movement with an estimated 750 yards long and 50 yards wide by range finder.
Wittke calls this geological event a "mass wasting event" where this is fairly common in many regions across the state. Based on state standards, this crack is a medium to large geological event, he confirms.
Apparently, most of these events occur in remote regions or uninhabited areas, as it does not have a direct threat to any human population or private or public property, unless visitors or tourists were at the gash area when it appeared on the mountains.
According to Dave Petley from the American Geophysical Union's Landslide Blog, water played a crucial role in this event where this crack did not happen in just one event but rather, he speculates that this huge gash in the Earth resulted from a "progressive failure" from the springs that caused an internal damage to the slopes.