Sinkhole

[Woodwalker]

Wonder if your homeowners Ins. would cover something like this?
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jrPQvV8m04aqHVMRXWXOCm0EL1-wD90HPJBG0
I've got a couple of jobs that are scheduled to start Monday not a mile from this.

[Tom]

We don't have any that large that I know of, but, Florida has an abundance of sinkholes caused by the groundwater dissolving limestone. 

It's probaby caused by Global Warming and is Bush's fault.  :D

[Texas Ranger]

In Polk County we call that rural renewal. :

[Ron Wenrich]

I heard that the reason was from pumping oil out from a salt dome, and now the dome has collapsed, or so the theory goes.

I know that we've had that problem in the coal regions.  Guys who do surveying down in the mines have told me that they could always tell where the rich guys lived.  The coal wasn't taken from under their homes. 

And, we do get places that collapse due to robbing the coal pillars out.  I think there was a section of interstate in western PA that sank and that was the reason given.  They're supposed to leave them in for support.

[Warbird]

It's probaby caused by Global Warming and is Bush's fault.  :D

Hah!  You nearly made me spit coffee on the laptop!  :D

[Raider Bill]

I personally spoke with someone that knows someone that spoke with someone that saw Gore say he saw Bush walk out of that hole carrying picks and shovels and get into a SUV gas guzzler.

[OneWithWood]

We have sink holes around here.  The limestone bed rock does dissolve over time and the overburden just drops down.  It is called Karst Topography.  Good caving grounds but not so good to build on.  :D

[Cedarman]

Most of the roundbottom sinkholes in our area have a small crack near the bottom that is choked with small chert pieces and clay. Most are too small for a person to fit through.  The rain water flows down through the ground to bedrock and dissolves a little and then the saturated water flows along the sides of the sinkhole to the crack and on down into the ground to stream level.  The ground in the sinkhole is what is left after the calcium carbonate dissolves and the dust that falls from the air.  We do get holes that open up after a rain washes out the plug and sometimes a hole just appears in the field, but they are usually small ones.

[Dave Shepard]

My father had one open up on him mowing a field about ten years ago. Thought it was a new chuck hole, but saw it was much bigger on the next pass. Took three ten wheeler loads to fill it.


Dave

[WDH]

TR,

I will check on you next week to see if you got eaten by a sinkhole  ;D.

If it ain't snakes, its sinkholes..... .

[fencerowphil (Phil L.)]

WoodWalker,

You may want to take your rappelling gear.

;)

[SwampDonkey]

I see them here in places with limestone erosion as well. It's not real common here, but we do have some limestone formations like up at Plaster Rock, thus the name. I was visiting an old feller one time up there and he showed me his tree plantation behind the house that was on higher ground and there were two or three big sink holes that used to be part of flat land. It was near the river, but not on the river bank. Along that area though, if canoing on the river you can see the limestone formations out on the river bank. They are reddish in color up there. In fact all soil in that rivershed (The Tobique River) has red soil and clay prominent as well. I suppose the clay would be over top the limestone. I have found other formations of limestone up there that is more gray with a hint of pink and has fossils. This was on a tributary. I think there are photos in the old forum archives.

[Texas Ranger]

 Talked with a friend on the Texas Railroad Commission (they handle pipelines and such) and the finger pointing has begun.