Earth Changes: Giant earth crack discovered in the Arizona desert

After South Africa, a new massive fissure was discovered in Arizona.

Huge cracks are fairly common in central Arizona, with a cluster of fissures around Eloy, and in Cochise, La Paz, Maricopa, Pima and Pinal Counties.
But the latest discovery, featured above in the video, is more than half a mile longer than other fissures in the area.

A two-mile-long earth fissure was discovered in southern Pinal County, the Arizona Geological Survey announced Monday. (Photo: AZGS / Anne Stegen)

The fissure is about 25 miles south of Arizona City, just south of Aries Drive near Sunland Gin Road.

The Arizona Geological Survey says the fissures form after “extensive groundwater withdraw in the Sonoran Desert.
It was the first time the AZGS used a drone to examine a fissure.

Known and reported earth cracks in central Arizona as of Jan. 2017. Map by AZGS

Fissures pose a threat to people off-roading and riding ATVs in the area. Roaming livestock can also fall in and get stuck. Standing near the edge of a fissure can be dangerous because it can suddenly cave in.