At 10:12 a.m., the city’s D.C. Alert emergency notification system sent out quite the eye-catching message: "DDOT reports the street is collapsing at 22nd and H [streets] NW. The 800 block of 22nd Street is closed at this time. Please avoid the area."

That apocalyptic warning got plenty of folks worrying that the ground beneath George Washington University was caving in. Is it a sinkhole? An undiscovered mineral reserve? A hellmouth?

Judging from the photo above sent in by a reader, the awkwardly worded D.C. Alert message caused a brief flutter of asphalt hysteria over what looks to be a slight depression near the curb of that block of H Street.

A District Department of Transportation spokesman said the agency was still evaluating the ground fissure. Alan Heymann, a spokesman for D.C. Water, said the utility saw the reports from DDOT and the Metropolitan Police Department and dispatched a crew to the site in case the street collapse is related to a water line, but he added that there are no reported water outages in the area.

A reporter for The Hatchet, the student newspaper at GWU, notes that the sinkhole appears to be about four feet by five feet in dimension.

Even though the stretch of 22nd Street between I and H streets NW is closed right now, it doesn’t appear to be impeding any lunch-hour business. The Red Hook Lobster Truck, for instance, isn’t backing away:

Red Hook Lobster DC @LobstertruckDC

GW we have landed! We brought plenty of lobster for ya. Find us and your lunch on 22nd between G & H NW. Almost @ corner of H & 22