What Is Your Understanding Of Sinkholes?

The sink holes in Florida are because the rock below the ground is limestone which is soluble in rainwater and so contains many underground streams and caves. From time to time, the roofs of the caves collapse and whatever is above them, which may be hundreds of feet of earth, simply disappears into the void. In England, it is thought that the Cheddar Gorge was caused by the collapse of a huge cave system and there are many cave systems in the Mendips and in Derbyshire, especially, where there are small sink holes down which streams disappear only to reappear miles away. Sink holes can also sometimes be caused by mining or gas or oil extraction but usually the subsidence doesn't produce such large or deep holes as those seen in limestone areas.

Sadly! The man never thought he lived above an abyss.The flood plains is different from Karst where the man lived.They say the man's house lie on bedrock made of limestone that can be eaten away by acidic ground water forming voids,once the rock can't support the weight of what is above it.

Scary, I heard about that too my friend, the last thing you'd expect, this was the first time I have ever heard of a sink hole, I found another discussion by a Mylot member and the helplessness of the brother of the victim. No one knows when our time is up, but you don't expect to go that way. That is part of the reason why surveys have to be done prior to buying a property, the history and lay out of the land and whether the ground is susceptible to flooding etc... Also erosion, I always found it sad that the Isle Of Wight is slowly sinking into the sea, and so much property has been lost through cliff erosion. They even had to relocate one of the Pleasure parks on the isle because it was close to falling in the sea.

It seems that there are a lot of limestone caves in that area and it was one of these that collapsed. In Lancashire, the problem is old mineshafts and workings - there is nowhere in this area that is not underlain by derelict mine workings. I remember seeing a report about a disaster that happened many years ago when mining was still active. An old mineshaft which happened to be under railway line, collapsed just as a goods train was approaching. The entire train went streight down the shaft. The bodies of the men in the engine were never recovered.

I was not aware of sinkholes till now. Did some surfing and found this link which has all the details. There is nothing one can do I suppose as it is not possible to test the ground before putting up structures: http://www.dep.state.fl.us/geology/geologictopics/hazards/sinkholes.htm

Very sad. I saw this story here in mexico on cnn international. Hope this never happens to anyone again. Thanks for sharing this story here. Have a super saturday there...

"And the earth swallowed him up." Sounds biblical, doesn't it? In this case, the sinkhole was probably a result of groundwater suddenly draining away. In the far north, it happens when the permafrost melts and the ice structure is no longer holding up the soil.

hi Janeyh I do not really understand what makes them but what an awful way to die for that poor man and his poor brother really tried to save hin b ut could not. WE met up with one because my dad refused to take the alternate road instead of the one we had planned on using so he gets there and the bridge is not safe as a lot of boards are missing. So he decides he will just make it across this little creek that only had a few inches of water in it,so he starts across and suddenly there iks a big rumbel and the car starts to sink. Panicked we jump out of the car as it slowly sinks five feet below the creek bed .We had to start walking to the nearest farm house when a highway patrol car pulls over and gives us a ridhee into the nearest town.there we find a garage that has a tow truck and a mechanisnm on it that can pull the car out of the hole.they had to work quickly as they had no idea of whether the sink hole would remain static or drop even further.this whole thing cost my dad about three thousand dollars just because he refused to take the detour which he should have taken,.

When I heard about this news a week ago, I was trying to figure out the term myself. Whoever this guy was, he was so unfortunate. This image is an example of sinkhole - http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/images/stories/large/2010/06/07/SINK-HOLES-96522814-1.jpg. My guess would be that his house or where he lives was an old land. Something in the ground must have rot that caused it that way. Just don't quote me since I have lack of understanding of this. I would try to read on this further whenever it is convenient for me.