The truth about the 'hell hole' in the lake that can 'swallow' everything around it

This “hellhole” is located in Lake Berryessa, California (USA). It has been widely known since 2017 when California swimmers discovered and filmed it. The video recording the “hellhole” attracted more than 150,000 views.

The strange hole is nearly 23m in diameter. Many viewers doubt whether it is the gate to hell. Others believe that anyone caught in it will fall into the mysterious black hole.

The "hell hole" in the reservoir makes many people worried. (Photo: Yahoo)

Lake Berryessa is the largest lake in Napa County, California. The reservoir, created by the Monticello Dam, provides water and hydroelectric power to the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. Lake Berryessa has a capacity of over 236 million cubic meters of water and is one of the largest reservoirs in the state of California.

It was later determined that the "hellhole" was actually a man-made spillway, and it was also named Glory Hole. The US Bureau of Reclamation created the hole in 1957. The California state government found that their 39,000 hectares of agricultural land in Solano and Yolo counties were always short of water in the summer.

To store water for irrigation, the state's water department proposed to the U.S. Department of the Interior to build a dam across Putah Creek at the Berryessa Valley and the town of Monticello. Since then, the Monticello Dam has been officially built.

This "hellhole" is actually a special spillway. (Photo: Yahoo)

Because the Berryessa Valley is so small and narrow, the architects used a rarer type of spillway, the bell-mouth spillway. This spillway is essentially a hollow cylinder, built from the bottom of the reservoir into the air, resembling an upside-down bell with an opening at the bottom.

This is an uncontrolled spillway design, meaning it does not have automatic gates. Instead, the height of the bell is pre-calculated so that whenever the reservoir exceeds its capacity, water will naturally overflow the bell and escape below the dam.

The spillway of the Berryessa reservoir is 130m high. The bell mouth is 22m wide and gradually narrows to 8.5m at the bottom outlet. It allows a maximum flow of 1,370m3 of water per second.

The “hell hole” appeared in 2006, 2017 and 2019 after heavy rains. Each time it opened, it attracted thousands of tourists to Lake Berryessa. However, currently, the Berryessa Lake management board has fenced off the area around this hell hole. At the same time, they also issued regulations prohibiting swimming or boating around this area to ensure the safety of visitors.

Quoc Thai (Source: Yahoo)

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