Sinkhole Watch 2013-16

Another sinkhole, St. Paul, MN.

Latest sinkhole in St. Paul, MN

Originally posted by works4dhs

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
You know what bothers me about Louisiana...aside from the shifty stories and lack of detail to what someone must have documented to the last container for what's down there... It's the seismic activity recorded. What the heck is moving around down there??

I get the idea that the Salt Domes collapsed or at least one did completely with whatever was stored inside. Fine. I'm sure that event rang seismographs too..No big surprised. It's the ongoing periods of activity people are talking about that really makes me wonder. What is still moving enough to be noticeable at times? That's a little unnerving.

any idea how deep these are?
it occurs to me that Leeziana must be one of the wettest places in conus, between the subtropical rain, prox to the Gulf, and the Mississip. (and Florida of course is very wet)
could the soaked ground be sliding off the limestone floor?
if there are salt mines &tc maybe the holes are creating lateral structure faults.
I'm in Maryland and so far so good.
good topic

Back in late November the sinkhole was about 111 feet deep and I'm not sure if it has gotten any deeper since. Officials also believe it may have tapped into oil and gas formations over 1,000 feet underneath. That's what may be causing all the bubbling and leaking. Texas Brine vented some of it so it relieved some of that leaking, but who knows if its not building up elsewhere. As Wrabbit mentioned, how is this all causing the tremors? There are lots of these salt domes and caverns all over down there. Who knows what's all going on down there or what's in store for the near future.

Its scary to think the Earth's crust is unstable.

Sorry if this one had been posted
Second sinkhole in florida

The latest sinkhole opened between two homes and was about 12-feet round, 3 feet deep around the edge and about 5 feet deep in the centre, said Hillsborough County spokesman Willie Puz. He said the latest sinkhole appears to be unrelated to the one that opened last Thursday under the home of 37-year-old Jeff Bush. "It is not geologically connected," Mr Puz said.

Originally posted by violet
Its scary to think the Earth's crust is unstable.

Sorry if this one had been posted
Second sinkhole in florida

The latest sinkhole opened between two homes and was about 12-feet round, 3 feet deep around the edge and about 5 feet deep in the centre, said Hillsborough County spokesman Willie Puz. He said the latest sinkhole appears to be unrelated to the one that opened last Thursday under the home of 37-year-old Jeff Bush. "It is not geologically connected," Mr Puz said.

If I lived in Seffner, FL, I'd be sleeping with one ear open!
Got to be a lot of sleepless nights for those residents.

Damn! I guess Florida is getting ready to sink! ANOTHER sinkhole now (or at least that's what they suspect):

Pinellas County investigating possible sinkhole

www.wfla.com...

PINELLAS COUNTY, FL -

A woman was trapped in her bedroom in a Palm Harbor home Tuesday morning because of a possible sinkhole in her living room, according to Pinellas County Fire Rescue report.

Crews were called to 100 block of Harbor Drive shortly after 9 o'clock this morning.

Fire officials told us a woman called 911 after she heard her house crack. She stayed in the bedroom awaiting rescue teams. When they arrived, firefighter saw multiple cracks of the house. Pinellas County Code Enforcement Department representatives were contacted.

Several nearby homes were evacuated as a precaution. No injuries are reported.

Stay with wfla.com for more on this.

Starting to make me wonder if something way down deep under that area of Florida has become unstable, and is subsiding, causing the upper layers to follow suit.

Facts about sinkholes inFlorida:

-The entire state of Florida sits on top of several thousand feet of limestone. Limestone is a rock that can form with natural void spaces called porosity. In limestone where the void spaces are connected, the rock is permeable. Porous and permeable limestone makes great aquifers and provide millions of gallons of fresh drinking water for residents and agriculture. The most significant factor in the development of sinkholes is the dissolution of the limestone underlying Florida by naturally acidic groundwater.

-Sinkholes are a natural and common feature of Florida's landscape. They are only one of many kinds of karst landforms, which include depressions, caves (both air and water filled), disappearing streams, springs and underground aquifer systems, all of which occur in Florida. Thousands of naturally occurring sinkholes can be seen throughout the state of Florida including many that connect underground to springs, rivers and lakes.

-Sinkholes form in karst terrain from the collapse of surface sediments into underground voids. In Florida one may see solution sinkholes, cover-subsidence sinkholes or cover-collapse sinkholes. The first two types will show very little topographical disturbance to the naked eye, while the third is the type which shows a abrupt change in topography and is most associated with the thought of sinkholes.

Questions about sinkholes in urban and suburban environments:

-My yard is settling... Do Ihave a sinkhole? Maybe. But a number of other factors can cause holes, depressions or subsidence of the ground surface. Expansive clay layers in the earth may shrink upon drying, buried organic material, poorly-compacted soil after excavation work, buried trash or logs and broken pipes all may cause depressions to form at the ground surface. These settling events, when not verified as true sinkholes by professionals, are collectively called "subsidence incidents." If the settling is affecting a dwelling, further testing by a licensed engineer with a licensed geologist on staff or a licensed geology firm may be in order. Property insurance may pay for testing, but in many cases insurance may not cover damage from settling due to causes other than sinkholes.

-A sinkhole opened in myneigborhood... should I be concerned? Although sinkholes in Florida sometimes occur in sets, most are isolated events. The bedrock underlying the state is honeycombed with cavities of varying size, most of which will not collapse in our lifetimes. A quick inspection of your property for any sinking or soft areas might be prudent. Unless the sinkhole is very large, and extends to your property, there's likely to be little reason for concern.

Should a sinkhole open in an area near you the hole should be immediately cordoned off and clearly marked to protect traffic. Contact local law enforcement to report the hazard and call your city or county road department to initiate repair work. If the road isprivate, repair of the hole is usually the responsibility of the landowner orproperty owners' association.

-Is there a safe area of Florida where there is no chance of sinkholes? Technically, no. Since the entire state is underlain by carbonate rocks, sinkholes could theoretically form anywhere. However, there are definite regions where sinkhole risk isconsiderably higher. In general, areas of the state where limestone is close to surface, or areas with deeper limestone but with a conducive configuration of water table elevation, stratigraphy, and aquifer characteristics have increased sinkhole activity.

In an effort to assist the state residents are encouraged to report sinkhole information by filling out asubsidence incident report form on the Department's website and submit the completed copy to the FGS. This website also contains information on sinkholes and how they form.

Source: Florida Geological Society

www.wfla.com...

reply to post by TrueAmerican


Hey True, the USGS reports no quakes down there in FL despite the shaking that was reported up and down the Gulf Coast from Port Charlotte to Naples. If anyone knows if this is true or not, it's going to be you. Could USGS be wrong on this or not reporting it on purpose, because with these sinkholes I was thinking something along the lines of what you are saying...that there is some earth crust movement going on down there. There's a lot of it going on all over the place. The smell that came from ocean in southern CA is now being blamed on a very large methane plume, which most likely was caused by some tectonic plate movement. I think it's this movement causing the plumes which are not only causing these sinkholes all over the place, but also the mass animal die-offs. What's your take on it?

TA & Rez, I just want to make sure it's understood that these FL sinkholes aren't as uncommon as the news is spinning them to be. Florida is peppered with them, look up Spring Hill as an example of sinkholes in a residential area. We don't joke & call it "Sink Hill" for nothing Countless sinkholes open up or grow in size every year. It's just the geological norm down here, or like I said in another thread, increasing odds of encountering one the longer one lives here is practically a prerequisite for living down here. The land may well be subsiding, it does that anyway - - we live on easily eroded limestone and powdery sand with underground springs & rivers snaking through, degradation & collapse is kind of a given.

By all means, keep logging them, I hadn't heard about the Palm Harbor one until this thread (and I live on Tampa Bay!) All I'm saying is don't let the hype get the best of you like the normal litany of small quakes & swarms in AK & Cali do to others.


EDIT: I see you edited in some info on our geology, which I either missed, or followed my post

reply to post by Nyiah


Thanks for the post, I lived a winter in Spring Hill on the county line with Hernando and Pasco not far off Hwy 19. My sister has lived in the area for almost thirty years. Nice area and yeah, sinkholes are common in Florida, but what actually has caught everyone's attention is not that the media is hyping anything up, it's the fact that someone died. Also, this hole True posted opened up in someone else's home. That's not too common, sinkholes within people's homes. If anything, the media doesn't give enough attention to these sinkholes, but that all changes when someone dies.

Here's an update on recent sinkholes.

Golfer counts his blessings after tumbling into 18ft hole in IL

Golfing with buddies, Mihal was waiting to hit his third shot, some 100 yards from the pin on the par 5, when he noticed a bathtub-looking indentation about knee deep just behind him on the fairway. Mihal remarked about how awkward it would be to hit out of the odd depression, and then walked over to give it a closer look and took one step onto it. "It didn't look unstable," he said. "And then I was gone. I was just freefalling. It felt like forever, but it was just a second or two, and I didn't know what I was going to hit. And all I saw was darkness."

Getting panicky and knowing his shoulder "was busted," Mihal assessed his dilemma in pitch darkness as he rested on a mound of mud, wondering if the ground would give way more and send him deeper into the pit. "I was looking around, clinging to the mud pile, trying to see if there was a way out," he said. "At that point, I started yelling, "I need a ladder and a rope, and you guys need to get me out of here." A ladder that was hustled to the scene was too short, and Mihal's damaged shoulder crimped his ability to climb. One of his golf partners, a real-estate agent, made his way into the hole, converted his sweater into a splint for Mihal and tied a rope around his friend, who was pulled to safety.

Allentown, PA sinkhole is expanding

The sinkhole, which was 30 feet wide and 12 deep on Sunday, was about half again as big by Monday afternoon. Township employees said they would shore up a sewer pipe beneath the street, then fill the sinkhole with a mixture of sand and concrete. Gallagher declared Jenkins' home uninhabitable. On Sunday, Jenkins said the ceiling in part of her house separated from the wall, likely due to the house shifting.

Sinkhole forces out Naples Church

NAPLES, Fla. -- A suspected sinkhole is forcing a Naples congregation from its church. Pastor Rick Shuck told WBBH on Monday the sinkhole has caused uneven floors, cracks in the walls and a hole in the ground so large that a landscaper fell into it. Shuck says they had to end Faith Community Church's Sunday service early because "it's just not safe anymore." He says some cracks in the walls are a half-inch wide and part of the auditorium floor has dropped about 4 1/2 inches.

Now there's a sinkhole in Washington, DC

Sinkhole closes street in Galesburg, IL

Delivery truck in sinkhole in Portage, WI

Bayou Corne sinkhole poses explosion risk, according to Erin Brokovich

The salt dome sinkhole is reportedly the first time a brine cavern of such substantial size has ever collapsed. Some experts feel the salt dome is not done caving in yet. The primary reason the salt dome collapse is considered an unprecedented sinkhole is the amount of gas and oil beneath the site. Gold Gate Petroleum, LTD statistics report there are about 200 billion gallons of crude oil and 500 billion cubic feet of gas under the Louisiana sinkhole.

Water restored to residents living by sinkhole

Sinkhole in Singapore

Kentucky resident forced to move because of sinkhole

Boston, MA

Kansas City

Second salt cavern near Bayou Corne sinkhole raises concerns

Weeki Wachi couple living over sinkhole in bedroom for 18 months

Pittsburgh mystery hole

This is an article from 2010... but posting because of the sheer number of sinkholes that appeared.

There has been mention of sinkholes around the Dead Sea before (ATS post), but this article gets into it a bit deeper:

Over 3000 sinkholes have appeared along the banks of the Dead Sea, and several thousand more are estimated to burst open soon, catching residents, tourists and livestock completely by surprise.
Sinkhole swallows unsuspecting Dead Sea tourist!

A couple of other links: link1 link2. These have to be zoomed in to be appreciated. 400% is good.

An interesting thing about this is that they have a similar but different theory on why the sinkholes appear(ed).

...which predictably turns out to be a theory adapted solely to the situation the geologists find there.

This tells me that their sinkhole theory doesn't mesh very well with other theories I've read about sinkhole formation- such as fracking and pumping oil out - leaving voids.

Because the theory summary above and USA-centric theories do not correlate very well, I'm calling their bluff. In other words, I don't believe anybody really knows why they are forming- all over the planet, and all fairly recently.

Since sinkholes are all over the world these days, I was thinking that they are probably on the ocean floor as well.... I suspect that we won't know about those until it's way too late. Anyways, even if we did, what can we do about them? Just pray that they are not too deep.

Can somebody say "Great Lakes"? i.e. Lakes: Erie, Huron, Michigan, Ontario

A new update on sinkholes. Another one claims a life, this time in China.

Massive sinkhole in southern China city kills worker

A massive sinkhole opened up Wednesday in the southern city of Shenzhen, wreaking havoc at a residential compound and killing one. According to the Southern Metropolis Daily newspaper, the sinkhole opened up at a construction site in Shenzhen’s Futian district at around 5:20 p.m. (5:20 a.m. ET). CCTV video from a nearby residential compound shows the ground in front of a tower shaking before suddenly opening up into a chasm in two separate places. The sinkhole, reportedly 16.5 feet in diameter and four-floors deep, swallowed up a 25-year-old security guard working in the tower. Rescue workers were able to reach the guard and take him to a nearby hospital, but he died soon after.

Fourth sinkhole near Tampa damages home and forces families out

25 more trees swallowed up in Bayou Corne sinkhole

Tombstone, AZ

This one would have been pretty scary. Another hole collapses out underneath a truck while he was driving into his driveway.

With its network of underground mines, Tombstone experienced another sinkhole on Friday, this one at the site of the city’s first home, built in 1879 along Fremont Street. Around 5:45 Friday evening when Mary and Michael Berryman pulled into the driveway of the house they’re in the process of purchasing, located at 101 E. Fremont Street, the left front tire of the semi truck Michael was driving suddenly sank when the ground collapsed under the weight of the truck. Emergency responders were contacted and immediately blocked off First Street to traffic and pedestrians. The truck was pulled out of the driveway with a winch attached to a tow truck.

Lake Ozark, MO

Springtown, AR

Going with her dog Sue to check on her orchard in the early dawn hours of March 2, Karee Barrett was shocked to discover a new feature in her backyard, about 100 feet from her house, that wasn't there the day before — a sinkhole, 9-10 feet deep and about 35 feet wide, had opened up, revealing layers of soil and rock and with water moving through its bottom into an apparent small underground channel.

Sinkhole nightmares for Sandy residents of Staten Island

Brisbane sinkhole stops traffic

West Orange sinkhole in Macy's parking lot

Northeast Minneapolis

Western Kentucky

Santa Barbara sinkhole keeps pool closed, cause still unknown

Schererville, IL

Lake County Surveyor George Van Til told the county Drainage Board on Wednesday that while the town and surveyor’s office initially believed the sinkhole forming in the parking lot of Computer Bay was caused by the failing Spring Street ditch, further review which involved getting a contractor down into the drain showed that was not the case. The approximately 70-year-old cement drain is still intact. “The bottom line is there was no cave in. There was no blockage in our drain,” Van Til said.

If not the drain, then what caused the sinkhole?

Sinkhole swallows IL golfer

Sinkhole drains California pond

Woman injured when Boston sinkhole opens up in street

www.freezonemediacenternews.com...
According to the above, South America is on the move.

reply to post by Rezlooper

If not the drain, then what caused the sinkhole?

Methane!

Van Til told members of the Lake County Drainage Board a video examination of the Spring Street Ditch between Joliet Street and Wilhelm Street show there were no obstructions or leaks that caused ground above the buried culvert to sink. He said another underground structure may be to blame for the problem.

www.nwitimes.com...

reply to post by Phage


Another underground structure? lol

Methane...

Swiss Cheesing, man!!! The swiss cheese effect.

By the same token... are landslides like the one that occurred at ATS Thread- Whidbey Island and here: Whidbey Island today just open-faced sinkholes? They look pretty similar to me. The only difference seems to be that this 'sinkhole' is on a cliff face.

Originally posted by MarkJS
Swiss Cheesing, man!!! The swiss cheese effect.

By the same token... are landslides like the one that occurred at ATS Thread- Whidbey Island and here: Whidbey Island today just open-faced sinkholes? They look pretty similar to me. The only difference seems to be that this 'sinkhole' is on a cliff face.

edit on 28/3/2013 by MarkJS because: (no reason given)

Sinkholes and landslides...yeah, I believe they're related as well as these land cracks

www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by Rezlooper


Just updating for a recent sinkhole that made the news at Portugal, in a place called Marvão.

Here's the general location in google maps:


a more detailed location:


General photo of the crater :


Here's the link to source news:www.acorianooriental.pt...

I will make a litle translation :

«This geological event happened in last Friday (April 05 – 2013), near to the small village of Porto de Espada. The authorities estimate that the crater haves about 300 feet depht and 50 feet in diameter.»

Acording to the local mayor, these region haves a lot of geological instability, saying also this is not an isolated case, but is unique, because of depth and diameter involved.

Authorities are now studding the source of this event.

The story by the national tv: www.rtp.pt...

PS: Don't forget the recent news about Russia
www.dailymail.co.uk...

reply to post by voyger2


Thanks for the awesome pic and the links. The Russian story is baffling, and to think that skeptics will continue to call this normal activity rather than pulling their heads out of their bums and admit something is up.

They may look like stills from an apocalyptic horror film, but these images have become a daily reality for residents in a Russian city. Citizens of Samara, in south east Russia, live in fear of the ground literally disappearing beneath them after huge sinkholes have started to appear all over their city, leaving devastation in their wake. The yawning underground caverns are all believed to have sprung up in recent weeks swallowing cars, buses and claiming at least one life.

From the Russian story in previous post. I advise all to check into that link and see the many photos of these sinkholes swallowing up vehicles. This is all in one city.

The sinkholes, some large enough to swallow an entire truck, are believed to have been caused by ground subsidence. It is thought the holes have been caused as ice thaws and melts into the ground, with the excess water causing soil decay underneath Samara's roads. The massive craters have appeared in car parks, busy intersections, by the sides of roads, and on major and minor thoroughfares.

This is a good description of what causes these limestone sinkholes, and if it takes thousands of years for a sinkhole to develop, what is speeding up these sinkholes all over the world? So, for thousands of years these holes developed all over this city and are just now sinking?

But natural sinkholes can take thousands of years to form and vary in size. They are usually the result of what are known as Karst processes, which occur when a layer of rock such as limestone underneath the ground is dissolved by acidic water. Typically rainfall seeps through the soil, absorbing carbon dioxide and reacting with decaying vegetation. As a result, the water that reaches the soluble rock is acidic. The acidic water then erodes the soluble rock layers beneath the surface creating cavernous spaces. Then, when it is no longer supported because of the cavity below, the soil or sand over the limestone collapses into a sinkhole. The collapse of the surface can happen suddenly or over a few hours. Heavy rainfall or poor drainage systems can trigger a collapse.

Thanks for the find Voyager. At the end of the article they compare to Florida as areas that are plagued by common sinkholes but I don't think I've seen anything like this in Florida.

reply to post by Rezlooper


Just making my contribution for topic I'm glad you like it. Thanks