Salaspils Karsta Kritene

Graži vieta, Rigas regions

This karst sinkhole formed in 2021 on an abandoned narrow-gauge railway embankment at the edge of Zeltiņu marsh, near the northern edge of Salaspils city. It developed through dissolution of underground gypsum rock from the Salaspils formation, with groundwater slowly hollowing out a cavity until the surface above collapsed. The hole has kept growing since then, widening from about a meter across at first to six to seven meters by 2024 and consuming the entire embankment width by 2025, though partial infilling from the edges has made it shallower than its original eight-meter depth. In January 2026 it was named Latvia's Geological Site of the Year, and the municipality has since fenced the area and installed an information sign for visitors.