Erbil -
In a strange and remarkable case that has not happened before, the Babshtian hill located in a village in the Soran District of Erbil Governorate in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq was split in half, creating a hole more than a kilometer long, more than one meter wide, and 15-20 meters deep.
This raised great fears that this division would extend further towards the highway linking the Haj Omran International Crossing in the city of Erbil - which is the city's economic artery - and cause its closure.
Arkan Othman, a professor at the Faculty of Geology at Soran University in Erbil, believes that the cause of this fission and cracking is the result of the strength of the earthquakes that the region witnesses from time to time, in addition to the annual drought that hit the region in general with the floods that occur in winter, because the stones of this hill do not have any Strength or durability and can be easily disassembled and does not have the strength to resist earthquakes, droughts and floods.
Othman warns against the expansion of this fission with the passage of days, and this was noticed within one week, as it expanded for several centimeters towards the main road linking the Haj Omran crossing in the city of Erbil through Soran district, which is the economic artery of this region in general.
To solve this disaster, the Iraqi academic suggests that the hill be dismantled into small pieces, stressing that there is no solution for it except this method, but what is remarkable about this phenomenon is that the hole comes out of cold air in the summer when temperatures exceed 50 degrees Celsius.