Giant 'Glory Hole' sucks in rainwater as storms swell California lake
Reservoir’s flood drain was expected to be used once every 50 years, but has seen action twice in last two
Some say it looks like a a toilet being flushed; in more generous interpretations, it is a beautiful inverted fountain.
In a rare occurrence, the water level in the Lake Berryessa reservoir, 75 miles north of San Francisco, has risen so much that it is pouring into a 200ft-deep circular pipe constructed in its corner. The 72ft diameter pipe, known as Morning Glory Spillway, or simply Glory Hole, takes in water like a drain, once the reservoir is filled over capacity, and shoots it into a creek below the Monticello Dam.
Northern California has seen heavy precipitation for weeks. Thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes due risks of floods near the town of Guerneville, and highways around the region have been shut down because of the downpours.
Glory Hole wasn’t designed to spill over on a regular basis, though it has twice in the past two years, and previously in 2006 and 1996. The US Bureau of Reclamation built the hole in 1957 to take in water for storm events that it expected would occur every 50 years or so.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/feb/27/california-glory-hole-lake-berryessa-rain-storm-flood-overspill
= new reply since forum marked as read
Back in the CA Gold Rush days, a Glory Hole was a very productive gold mine.
As in many things, that definition has been supplanted with....er....something else. 
Glory hole, sucks and swell all in the same title makes me blush. 
