Sinkhole opens up in Venus backyard

[irishspirit]

VENUS - About 3:30 p.m. Thursday, Luis Hernandez felt the soil trembling beneath his feet.

"He had to run that way," said his wife, Orpha, pointing to the east behind their three-bedroom mobile home.

He heard air coming up, "Whooo, whooo, whooo," Orpha approximated the noise, as if underground air was rushing to the surface.

Luis knows because he looked at the clock on his phone – in just five minutes, a 100-foot wide sinkhole opened in the sand, gulping pots with palm trees and ligustrum hedges and catley guava.

By Friday, they'd rescued all the nursery plants from the one-acre plot, moving them to the adjoining nine acres. But the hole had swelled 20 feet wider, and at 4 p.m. Friday, the circular mouth was an estimated 140 feet across.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/dec/17/181255/sinkhole-opens-venus-backyard/news-breaking/

[Teakai]

Wow!

Wonder how deep it is - they didn't say.

[irishspirit]

I am currently looking for more sources on this, I will report back if/when found!

[Teakai]

Oh good - thanks, Irish. I went and had a quick look round and couldn't find anything. Really, you'd think the depth would be of interest to mention when reporting on a sinkhole, right? :lol:

[irishspirit]

A sinkhole approximately 140 feet wide opened up on Luis and Orpha Hernandez's property on Alphonso Lane in Venus on Thursday afternoon. Luis was standing on the area of the sinkhole when he felt the ground rumble, and within five minutes, a sinkhole approximately 100 feet wide had opened. By Friday afternoon, several feet of water had accumulated in the bottom of the sinkhole.

http://poleshift.ning.com/profiles/blogs/sinkhole-opens-up-in-venus

[Teakai]

They mentioned this in the first link:
"This morning, there was just a little water in it," she said. But by late afternoon, water was three feet deep and rising in the center of the hole.
- but that doesn't give us anything definite. It could have risen 100 feet so far and still be rising. Pity the guy who had his mobile phone on him didn't record it - probably too busy making a run for it.

[Anchor]

But then she found out from Interim Emergency Operations Management Director Scott Canaday that if the sinkhole gets closer to their home, they may have to move. He told her this was the biggest one he'd seen.

"You hear about these things, but you don't think it will ever happen to you," said Hernandez, whose day job is managing the RE/MAX Realty Plus II office in Lake Placid.

So, what will they do now? Well, Hernandez said she was told, they can fill in the sinkhole – but they'll need a permit.

Which permit would that be then? The little used Form 54B/7 filling in sinkholes permit?

Wonder why they would bother. Gaia obviously decided they needed a pond.

I agree the reporting wasn't good. I wanted to know how deep - where the water came from etc.

[irishspirit]

just as a matter of interest, look at the google trends for this term of sinkholes being searched for.

http://www.google.com/trends?q=sinkhole

[noxon medem]

- think this is a benign (benine ?) "sinkhole", with a very natural, and promising, explanation.
Was/is my first impulse, after looking at the material and comments provided on this thread.
Seems to me to be groundwater movement, re-arranging, and a swirl forming on that land.
Underneath, actualy.
It has been digging out the soft ground beneath, and re-elevated a piece of ground,
to fit a new pond. Congratulations to those people on the new watersource on their farming.
(.. or is that oil ?)

- anyway, this woman might float by

3499

(.. just add some imagination ..)

:fish2:

[irishspirit]

South Africa relocates residents due to sinkholes

South African authorities have begun the relocation of 3,000 families after huge sinkholes appeared close to their homes near Pretoria.

The depressions are said to be the result of a massive extraction of water by farms in the area, causing underground caverns to collapse.

About 50 families living in an informal settlement in Bapsfontein have been moved so far, officials said.

Authorities have said the land is no longer fit for human settlement.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12083806

What is going on here? Really?

[Swami]

Sinkholes and Blue Holes


A sinkhole, also known as a sink, shake hole, swallow hole, swallet, doline or cenote, is a natural depression or hole in the earth's surface caused by karst processes - the chemical dissolution of carbonate rocks.

Sinkholes may vary in size from less than 1 to 300 meters (3.3 to 980 ft) both in diameter and depth, and vary in form from soil-lined bowls to bedrock-edged chasms. They may be formed gradually or suddenly, and are found worldwide. These terms are often used interchangeably, though many distinguish between features a surface stream flows into and features with no such input. Only the former are described as sinks, swallow holes or swallets. A sinkhole on a glacier is called a moulin or a glacier mill.



http://www.crystalinks.com/sinkholes.html

[irishspirit]

Source: Giant Sinkhole Forms in Park

A sinkhole about the size of a living room opened up in Scripps Ranch Tuesday evening.

The sinkhole opened up in the middle of a park near Rue Chantemar at Rue Chamberry. It was likely caused by storm drain erosion, according to the Water Department.

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local-beat/Giant-Sinkhole-Forms-in-Park---112599304.html