People wade through a flooded road, due to monsoon rains and the recent typhoon Doksuri, in Balagtas, Bulacan province, Philippines on July 29, 2023. (Photo by Lisa Marie David/Reuters)

A girl carries a toddler through a flooded street after the passage of Hurricane Rafel in Batabano, Mayabeque province, Cuba, on November 7, 2024. (Photo by Yamil Lage/AFP Photo)

A cenote is a natural phenomenon, a sinkhole in the Earth’s surface. The Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico has an estimated 7,000 cenotes because it is primarily made up of porous limestone. For millions of years, rainfall slowly ate away at the limestone and a huge system of underground caves and caverns was formed. Many filled with water from rain or from the underground water table. When the roof of a water filled cave collapses, a cenote is born. The water found in a cenote may be fresh water, salt water, or both. Structurally it may be completely open, like a lake, almost completely closed with just a small opening at the top, or somewhere in between.

A Filipino girl is carried along a flooded road in suburban Mandaluyong, east of Manila, Philippines, as monsoon downpours intensify while Typhoon Nepartak exits the country on Friday, July 8, 2016. In the Philippine capital, Manila, and outlying provinces, classes in many schools were suspended and at least six flights, including one scheduled to come from Taiwan, were canceled because of stormy weather and floods following monsoon downpours intensified by the typhoon, Filipino officials said. (Photo by Aaron Favila/AP Photo)

A woman from a flood affected area arrives to receive food and other items distributed by the religious charity group Al-Khidmat Foundation Pakistan, in Shabqadar near Peshawar, Pakistan, Tuesday, September 13, 2022. The death toll from three months of record-breaking floods in Pakistan rose to over 1,400, officials said Tuesday, as the minister for climate warned the prolonged monsoon rains will continue lashing this impoverished nation in the coming weeks. (Photo by Muhammad Sajjad/AP Photo)

People clean up debris at a traditional market damaged by flood after torrential rain on August 09, 2022 in Seoul, South Korea. The heaviest rainfall in 80 years has pounded Seoul and surrounding regions, leaving seven people dead and six others missing, as well as flooding homes, vehicles, buildings and subway stations, government officials said. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

A herd of elephants cross a road that passes through the flooded Kaziranga National Park in the northeastern state of Assam, India, July 12, 2017. (Photo by Anuwar Hazarika/Reuters)

Children play on a flooded highway during a summer downpour in Edsa, Quezon city, metro Manila, Philippines on April 25, 2018. (Photo by Dondi Tawatao/Reuters)