World's Largest Hole in a Lake

The so called "hole in a lake" is actually a spillway for automatically controlling the maximum level of a lake, created by a dam. Unlike other spillways these lakes are surrounded on all sides by water and from top these look like a hole in water surface. Such spillways are also known as morning glory hole or glory hole or   plughole or inverted bell-mouth spillway.

In past I have made two posts on the subject in which I had mistakenly mentioned that the glory holes covered in these posts were World Largest and Second Largest. A search on the internet shows that there are many claimant to title of "The Largest" and I was misled by these searches.

I have now come across two more glory holes which are bigger than the two covered by me earlier. As per my latest information the "Largest Hole in a Lake" in descending order are located in;

1. Jatiluhur Reservoir, Java Island, Indonesia (Mouth diameter 90 metres - 295 feet)
2. Whiskeytown Lake, Shasta County, USA (26.8 metres - 44 feet)
3. Ladybower Reservoir, Upper Derwent Valley, Derbyshire, England. (Two numbers - 24.3 metres - 80 ft each). (Link to earlier post)
4. Berryessa Lake, Monticello Dam, California, USA (22 metres - 72 feet). (Link to earlier post)

In this post I am covering #1 and #2 while #3 and #4 have already been covered and their details can be seen in the links given above against their names.

1. World's Largest Hole in a Lake - Jatiluhur Reservoir

The largest morning glory hole in the World is located in the Jatiluhur Reservoir, Java Island, Indonesia. Although the shape of the the hole is not like a morning glory flower but technically it is a morning glory type spillway. The diameter of the opening is whopping 90 metres (295 feet).

The cylindrical shaped tower is multi-purpose and besides being a spillway it also acts as intake for water turbines and Irrigation channel  located underneath the tower.

The vastness of this hole can be gauged by the fact the its diameter is larger than the sum of the diameters of three next large holes in the World and it is also more than 3 times than its nearest rival at Whiskeytown lake!!

Image from Panoramio is by budisantoso

Image source: Google Maps

View location in Google Earth / Google Maps

Source of info and more info: jatiluhurdam.wordpress.com (In Indonesian) (English Translation)

Credits: BridgePlayer for finding it and making a post about it in GEC Forum.

2. World's Second Largest Hole in a Lake

The morning glory hole type spillway in the Whiskeytown Lake, Shasta County, California, is the second largest hole in a lake in the World.

The spillway crest has a diameter of 26.8 metres (44 feet) and the bore gradually tapers down to 7.5 metres (24.5 feet).

Image from Flickr is by pressuretobear

Image Source Google Maps

View location in Google Earth / Google Maps

Main source of info: US Bureau of Reclamation (pdf)

Credits: I am thankful to Maria Kokokovitch for bringing this to my knowledge.