Sinkholes have gulped down suburban household , Corvettes , theWhite House lawn , a sizeable chunk of Louisiana , andeven people . The gaping jam are surprisingly common and often come out after the water hasalteredthe underlie fundamental principle . But how does the ground just spread out up like that ?
Water Has Its Way
Sinkholes are a simple matter of drive and effect . Urban swallow hole may be directly trace to hole-and-corner water system main breaks or fall in sewer pipelines , into which city sidewalks crumple in the absence seizure of any structural keep . In more rural areas , such catastrophes might be attributed to abandoned mine shaft or salt cavern that ca n’t take the weight any longer : A collapsing salinity dome created the monumental , still - growingLouisiana Sinkholein the townspeople of Bayou Corne . These types of sinkholes are heavily influenced by human action , but most sinkhole are unpredictable , inevitable lifelike occurrences .
Florida , which hasmore sinkholesthan any other country , is so prone because the rock underlying its golf courses andamusement parksis limestone — it ’s solid rock , but the sort that is easily dissolved by acidic rain or groundwater . When mildly acidic water clothing out at fractures in the limestone , it leaves empty space where there used to be Harlan Stone , resulting in a Swiss Malva sylvestris - like intercellular substance calledkarst . Even the residuum of the dissolved tilt is washed away by rain or flooding . At ground level , soil , grass , or — for example — lavishness condominiums perched atop the karst are n’t leave alone with much support . Just as a family build on a weak fundament is more probable to collapse , the same is true of the ground itself . gravitational force finally takes its toll , aided by lifelike erosion , and so the trap begins to sink .
Sinkhole Central
About 10 percent of the cosmos ’s landscape is composed of karst region . Along with Florida , U.S. states , let in Tennessee , Kentucky , Virginia , and Idaho , are also prime swallow hole dominion ( plus their large karst areas that have give rise toamazing cavesandcaverns ) . Sinkholes ’ unpredictable nature process as cogent evidence that the background beneath our feet may not be as solid as we think .
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A rendering of this story was published in 2018 ; it has been update for 2025 .
