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Luis Echeverria / Associated Press
In this file photo released by Guatemala's Presidency, a sinkhole covers a street intersection in downtown Guatemala City, May 31, 2010.
A Florida man is missing after an apparent sinkhole opened in his bedroom in the middle of the night, sucking him and his bed deep into the earth. As frightening as it sounds, sinkholes happen all the time, according to geologists. Usually, though, they are slow-motion processes that can take years.
Sinkholes of the sort that swallowed the Florida man form when slightly acidic groundwater dissolves limestone or similar rock that lies beneath the soil creating a large void or cavities. When the overlying ceiling can no longer support the weight of the soil and whatever is on top of it, the earth collapses into the cavity.
"Then you have the depression at the land surface, which is the sinkhole," Jonathan Arthur, director of the Florida Geological Survey, told NBC News.
If a house or road sits on top of the sinkhole, it too falls into the earth, as did the Florida man who fell into a hole estimated at 20-feet-deep by 20-feet-wide.
"They heard a sound they described as a car crash emanating from the bedroom," Hillsborourgh County Fire Chief Ron Rogers said at a Friday morning news conference describing the reaction of the man's family. “They rushed in. All they could see was part of a mattress sticking out of the hole. The floor of the room had opened."
Luis Echeverria / AP
A look at some of the most amazing sinkholes around the world.
Technically, the event in Tampa has not been ruled a sinkhole, "although that is what most people believe it to be," Arthur said. "A little further site geology and geotechnical work would be needed to absolutely confirm its nature."
These types of sudden sinkholes are so-called cover-collapse sinkholes. When they occur, a hole typically forms and grows over a period of minutes to hours. Sediments may continue to slump down the sides of the sinkhole for several days and erosion of the edges can last even longer.
At the apparent sinkhole near Tampa the victim "could be drawn into the water with the debris falling on top of him, so he wouldn't be able to possibly escape from that," Grenville Draper, a professor in the department of Earth and the environment at Florida International University, told NBC News.
"That part of it is very tragic," he added. "I've never heard of there being a fatality associated with these before. They do occur rather suddenly, but we're not talking like an earthquake. You do have minutes or even an hour to take action to save yourself."
Cover-collapse sinkholes are quite rare, according to the Florida Sinkhole Research Institute. A preliminary assessment of 1,400 sinkholes found only or two. More common is the slow, gradual subsidence of land, forming bowl-shaped depressions at the surface in a process than can last years.
Sinkholes can reach more than 100 feet deep into the earth and spread across several hundred feet. Others are tiny — a few feet across and maybe a foot deep. Some hold water and form ponds.
"A very small percentage of sinkholes that form actually have some adverse effect on human life and infrastructure," Arthur said. "However, it is those that make the news, whether it is under a roadway or a home."
In addition to Florida, other U.S. hotspots for sinkholes include Texas, Alabama, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee and Pennsylvania, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Just because one sinkhole opens, does not necessarily mean another nearby is imminent. They are usually isolated events, the Florida Geological Survey notes. However, certain events such as a hurricane following a period of drought can trigger a series of sinkholes to occur within minutes to hours of each other, Arthur noted.
This happened in the wake of Tropical Storm Debby in June 2012. "It came across Florida after a period of drought where water levels in the ground were lower and then we had the massive influx of rain, over 20 inches in some areas, and that change in the climate and the groundwater levels triggered hundreds of sinkholes across the state over a very, very short period of time," Arthur said.
Human activity can also cause sinkholes to develop. Excessive pumping of groundwater, for example, can cause the soil to settle. Others form under the weight of runoff-storage ponds, which cause the underground support material to collapse.
Sinkholes are most often found in seven states, including Florida where the ground recently collapsed in Seffner, Fla., near Tampa, sending 37-year-old Jeffrey Bush and his entire bedroom into the earth. NBC's Gabe Gutierrez reports.
John Roach is a contributing writer for NBC News. To learn more about him, check out his website.
Leave a Comment:
That one in the pic looks more like a black hole than a sink hole!
It looks Photoshopped or like special effects from a movie.
I agree. I thought it was fake when I first saw last year.
"Science of sinkholes' is the title and they didn't even mention Karst Topography? As in - common in Florida due to the underlaying substrata (ie: LIMESTONE). Google Karst Topography if you REALLY want to know something.
Man...
WHO in the hellfire WROTE this poor 'scientific' article? To the author: Take a Geology Class, will you?
It is time to get a good civil engineer involved. Flowable fill ( low cement level fill) looks like it could be the answer. Over years, the underground rivers would be dammed up. Better than waiting for the next one to appear and over the long haul less expensive.
Donald, cement is generally about the same thing as the limestone rock that is characteristic of many areas with karst topography. Besides that, the groundwater may be used by communities for various things. I doubt they'd appreciate your plan being put into effect, even if it were viable.
Keep raping the earth and it will swallow us all eventually. What would happen if a sink hole occured at the Keystone Pipeline? Can you imagine the oil spilled into the ground? Can you imagine the ecological nightmare in Texas? Oh well, Texas has been raping its own environment for years. One more hazard won't make already bad water much worse.
Ana: Actually, there are underground caverns that were made thousands of years ago or more that can cause these 'holes' to appear. It isn't because of 'raping' - it is due to surface weight and vibration, mostly.
I'm not saying that there isn't an ecological nightmare in Texas, just that this isn't a cause of that.
Climate change.
Binkie: ..... more like soluble rocks, but that's okay. Climate change does exist. You might say its a remnant of climate change from the past. I find it all fascinating, actually.
Sinkholes have been reported since 1954, and before 1954, there had no sinkhole reported. But the incidents of sinkholes have become more and have taken one life.
Sinkholes in CA have been reported in 2010 and in 2012. Sinkholes in Canada have been reported since 2010. Sinkholes in Mexico have been reported since 2007.
Something is just unusually more ofter than the past; perhaps, take some precaution.
Billie-2352729 thinks that, "Sinkholes have been reported since 1954, and before 1954, there had no sinkhole reported."
Yet another fine example of the truth to the claim that the world's average IQ is plummeting.
Billie, let me help you out a bit. 1 minute of research before opening mouth would have saved you from making yourself look like an idiot. Sinkholes have been around longer than HUMANS have been around. Try these & enlighten yourself:
Red Lake - Croatia
Minye - Papua New Guinea
Sotano del Barro - Mexico
Cave of Swallows - Mexico
Sima de las Cotorras - Mexico
Zacaton - Mexico
Sima Humboldt - Venezuela
Teiq - Oman
Dean's Blue Hole - Bahamas
Blue Hole - Egypt
Great Blue Hole - Belize
Kingsley Lake - Florida
Devil's Hole - Florida
Alapaha River - Florida
Gypsum Sinkhole - Utah
Harwood Hole - New Zealand
Boesmansgat - South Africa
That should be enough to keep you busy for a while & to see just how absurd & laughable your "1954" claim is. If you need some more, say so. There's thousands of them scattered over the world .... always have been.
Billie, sinkholes and other characteristics of karst topography have been occurring around the world for a very, very long time. Do take a look at China....
A sinkhole appeared in the back yard of the last house I rented. The previous tenant (owner) was a crazy old lady who spent hundreds per month watering an "oasis in the desert". There were varieties of cacti I had never seen before. When I moved in and started watering like a normal person, the ground sank even more. The foundation and walls were already cracked when I moved in, but got worse until it (mostly) settled. I kept throwing garbage and junk into the hole, and after a few years it finally starting filling in.
Being a spelunker, I can just imagine being in a cave and watching that junk fall out of a hole in the ceiling.
Rain, snow, and wind are seldom catastrophic, and it is just the accumulated effects, e.g., increasing the occurrences.
The sky is red, nothing uncommon, but it tells us that we have to prepare. The unpredictability of swallowing the earth can be prevented by the research and study and civil engineering. The rising of the water level is given, and asking ourselves, what would you do then?
No, actually, it can't be prevented except in cases where the sinkhole was created by a burst waterline or such, but that is an entirely different matter. Karst topography is natural, and the sinkholes are going to occur no matter what you do. The best you can do is to just not build in such areas.
For the love of Pete people, chill a bit and have a drink. Then come learn about some good photography services in Peterborough Ontario that I can help you with.
Now, don't you feel better?
The writer is absolutely correct, every sink has a sink hole.