Recently, a video surfaced on social media showing what appears to be a huge hole in a water body. The video, showing a magnificent view is being shared with captions suggesting that the giant whirlpool occurred due to a natural phenomenon.
A Facebook user shared the video with the caption: “This is just an amazing Ameen.”
Several other users have also shared this video with captions suggesting that the hole in the water body is a natural phenomenon.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the viral video, and found it to be shared with a misleading claim.
On performing relevant keyword searches, we found a video report on the Guardian News YouTube channel, dated February 28, 2019. The video shows similar visuals, describing the hole in the river as ‘Glory Hole’, a man-made spillway constructed inside Lake Berryessa in California.
According to a report published in The Sun, the giant hole is a man-made spillway known as a ‘Glory Hole’. The tunnel is used to drain the lake to stop Lake Berryessa from overflowing.
The Californian lake can hold up to 521 gallons of water before the excess begins to flow into the spillway, says the report. The hole, a 200-feet deep circular pipe with a diametre of 72 feet, takes in water like a drain once the reservoir is overcapacity.
According to another report, the US Bureau of Reclamation built the hole in 1957 to take in water for storm events that it expected would occur every 50 years.
Therefore, with the above information, it is confirmed that the video claim is misleading.