China has approved a $137,000,000,000 project to build the most powerful hydro dam – but the move has left people concerned.

Human rights activists and environmentalists are worried construction of the world’s biggest mega project could have some serious consequences – especially as it’s being built on an ‘earthquake zone’.

Plans for the dam were first drawn up in 2020, almost 15 years after the current biggest dam – the Three Gorges in central China – was built.

Situated on the Yangtze River, Three Gorges is reported to generate 0.54 Twh electricity a day and can handle inflows of around 98.8m litres per second.

The Three Gorges Dam in central China (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

What is the new project?

The new dam will be located in the lower reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo River and could generate three times more electricity than that.

According to a 2020 estimate by Power Construction Corp of China, the new hydro dam could produce 300 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually.

Chinese state media says the project is a ‘safe project prioritising ecological protection, as per the BBC.

Despite its hefty financial cost, the dam will contribute to Beijing’s ‘climate neutrality goals’.

Construction will take place at the Yarlung Tsangpo River in Tibet, China (Photo by Li Lin/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images)

Why are experts so concerned?

There are a number of issues plaguing the expensive Yarlung Zangbo dam project.

The feat may require at least four 20 km-long tunnels to be drilled through the Namcha Barwa mountain, meaning the flow of the Tibetan river will be diverted.

For neighboring India – and Bangladesh, which the river also passes through – this could spell trouble, as interference with the water flow could trigger flash foods or even see the country face droughts.

Experts also feared that the dam would ‘empower China to control or divert the flow’ of the Yarlung Tsangpo River, which measures 1,125km in length.

A 2020 report published by the Lowy Institute said that ‘control over these rivers [in the Tibetan Plateau] effectively gives China a chokehold on India’s economy’.

The dam is also set to be located along a tectonic plate boundary prone to earthquakes. Researchers are worried drilling into the Namcha Barwa mountain and the continued construction of the dam may also increase the frequency of landslides.

Finally, the construction of the dam could displace locals, although it’s not known how many people the project would be forced to relocate.

However, Chinese authorities have stressed that the project would not have a major environmental impact.

Should construction go ahead, the dam is set to take 35 years to complete – that’s not until 2060.

Did you know a sinkhole in Asia plays host to a lush, ancient forest where trees tower nearly 130 feet tall?

Two years ago, scientists in Southwestern China discovered life was teaming inside a gigantic sinkhole, situated in the Leye-Fengshan Global Geopark in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of the country.

The depression, which forms part of the UNESCO site, was proclaimed by Zhang Yuanhai, a senior engineer with the Institute of Karst Geology, to stretch over 1,000 feet in length, 490 feet in width and to be almost 630 feet in depth.

Yuanhai also explained the site had ‘a well-preserved primitive forest at the bottom’ and three cave entrances inside of it.

What’s even more exciting is that researchers believe there may be unknown flora as well as animals dwelling within.

The sinkhole was discovered in May 2022 (Leye-Fengshan Global Geopark)

Speaking about the findings, UNESCO claimed: “The UNESCO Global Geopark is primarily sedimentary with more than 60 percent of 3000m thick Devonian to Permian carbonate rocks.

“It forms an ‘S’-shaped structure and a rhombus configuration in the karst areas of Leye and Fengshan counties respectively, which controlled two large subterranean rivers’ development, the Bailang and Poyue.”

It’s said that the Buliuhe River was formed between the two bodies of water and that various ‘karst geosites’ were also created.

A ‘karst’ is a terrain where dissolving bedrock can create sinkholes due to eroding landscape both above and below ground.

Examples of karsts within the Leye-Fengshan Global Geopark include karst springs, karst windows (tiankengs), natural bridges and extensive caves.

Speaking to Live Science about the sinkhole expedition, leader Chen Lixin said at the time: “I wouldn’t be surprised to know that there are species found in these caves that have never been reported or described by science until now.”

He added that some of the trees found in the ancient forest were nearly 130 feet tall.

Trees up to 130 feet tall were discovered (Xinhua)

George Veni, the executive director of the National Cave and Karst Research Institute, also told the publication that differences in geology, climate and other factors meant that a karst can be dramatically different depending on where it is.

“In China, you have this incredibly visually spectacular karst with enormous sinkholes and giant cave entrances and so forth,” he explained. “In other parts of the world you walk out on the karst and you really don’t notice anything. Sinkholes might be quite subdued, only a meter or two in diameter.

“Cave entrances might be very small, so you have to squeeze your way into them.”

According to the expert, southern China is home to such vast karst topography that its landscape is prone to creating many deep sinkholes and explorable caves.

He added that slightly acidic rainwater is usually the cause of bedrock beginning to dissolve in a karst landscape.

It’s said that the rainwater becomes more acidic as it picks up carbon dioxide and runs through the soil.

Then, it trickles and flows through cracks in the bedrock before it eventually hollows them out into tunnels and voids.

It’s thought unknown plants and animals could dwell within the ancient forest (Xinhua)

If one of these chambers becomes large enough then the ceiling will collapse and a potentially giant sinkhole will be formed.

Interestingly, the Geopark sinkhole was the 30th to be discovered in the region, but it isn’t the biggest.

The Xiaozhai Tiankeng sinkhole holds the crown for being the world’s biggest sinkhole with a volume of 130 million cubic meters.

‘Tiankeng’ means ‘The Heavenly Pit’ and this natural wonder is home to over 1200 species of plants and animals.

The sinkhole there is 2,100 feet deep, 2,000 feet long and 1,760 feet wide and includes a waterfall within its depths.

It’s pretty spectacular, don’t you think?

Scientists in China have opened a new $276,500,000 facility capable of producing gravity 1,900 times stronger than that on Earth.

The Centrifugal Hypergravity and Interdisciplinary Experiment Facility (CHIEF) began construction at Future Sci-Tech City, Hangzhou in 2020 and now, one of its world-leading centrifuges is operational.

Said to be the world’s largest centrifuge, which can ‘compress’ time and space, it will allow research into complex physics and engineering problems.

The project was greenlit in 2018 by the national government and has cost some $276.5 million, according to the South China Morning Post.

Construction began on the facility in 2020 (CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images)

The facility is made up of six hypergravity experiment chambers in total, and will enable research into slope and dam engineering, seismic geotechnics and deep-sea and deep-earth engineering.

Geological processes and materials processing will also be studied.

The centrifuge – a giant, spinning arm – can carry a payload and spins fast to create ‘fake’ gravity stronger than the 1G we usually experience on Earth.

NASA said that artificial gravity could be a crucial step in helping astronauts travel to Mars.

The arm’s motion creates the centrifugal force, helping to replicate conditions to test material strengths in a variety of scenarios.

A rendering of the completed CHIEF building (Hangzhou Municipal People’s Government)

For example, rocket and other spacecraft materials can be stress-tested against the effects of microgravity experienced in orbit.

It can also be used to learn more about our planet’s own environment, including mountain formations and river flood dynamics on dams.

Chen Yunmin, a professor at Zhejiang University which led the CHIEF project, said the facility means ‘scientists can observe the transport of pollutants that in nature would take tens of thousands of years’.

As per New Atlas, CHIEF can support a centrifuge capacity of 1,900 g-t (gravity acceleration × ton), and payloads of up to 32 tons.

That’s more than the US Army Corps of Engineers’ facility that manages 1,200 g-t.

This centrifuge was designed primarily for training of Apollo astronauts (Bettmann/Getty Images)

Meanwhile NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland was one of the largest facilities in the world some 10 years ago.

Its centrifuge is capable of accelerating a 2.5- ton payload up to 30G, which pales in comparison to CHIEF.

It measured up to 140 ft in diameter, with a rotational top speed of 156 mph (250 km/h).

The exact measurements of CHIEF’s three main centrifuges are yet to be disclosed.

The government of Hangzhou said the ‘first phase of commissioning’ at CHIEF will ‘take place this year’ as planned.