How Can a Sinkhole Form

How Can a Sinkhole Form?

While sinkholes can happen at practically any time one of the most famous sinkholes in recent history occurred under the Corvette Museum and it swallowed up several of the collectible models that were on display at the museum. Ever since this incident took place the automotive world has had more interest in what a sinkhole is and how one can happen. Even though Chevrolet had to restore some of the Corvette models that fell into the hole, it’s a good idea to know how a sinkhole can happen in order to try and avoid one, but even in some of the best locations, these are hard to avoid.

One of the key factors to a sinkhole or any other formation of the Earth and the way the ground looks or the shape of the crevasses we see is water. Water is actually one of the most powerful things on the planet and it is responsible for reshaping the land and adding to the erosion that takes place. Erosion is simply the movement of rock and earth from one place to another and more often than not water is the item that takes and moves these materials during the process.

Another factor in the creation of a sinkhole is the solubility of the rock that’s under the area where the sinkhole forms. Some types of rock such as sugar and salt are able to be dissolved in water and when this happens the water running under an area of land can dissolve some of the land substances and cause a sinkhole to form. As the water moves and space is created from the dissolving of the materials in the bedrock, space opens up and allows the land above to sink into the space that was created.

Do you wonder how sinkholes happen in urban areas? More often than not, a sinkhole is the result of what we do to the subsurface below a city. With miles of pipes and sewers running under a city, you can have a sinkhole take place with even just a small separation in the pipes in the ground. Once a bit of the ground is about to get into the pipes and be washed away, a void begins to form which eventually leads to a sinkhole. The fact is the sinkhole might take anywhere from a few days to several years to form, but eventually, it can show up.

Dams that break and cause immediate erosion are another form of a sinkhole as well. There are natural sinkholes, but there are some that happen when we make decisions to build in the wrong places and eventually cause a hole to form in the ground. Like it or not, the tearing up of the ground to run pipes and other items under the ground have caused more sinkholes than anything else. The decisions that have to be made to make sure a sinkhole doesn’t take place are numerous and extensive. Enjoy the short video below and learn more about how a sinkhole can happen.

 

 

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