Sinkholes
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17-foot sinkhole collapses street in San Francisco, California

San Francisco sinkhole
© Screenshot via NBC News
A sinkhole appeared near a roadwork site Thursday evening in Pacific Heights, according to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.

A 17-foot by 22-foot area of Sacramento Street collapsed between Lyon and Baker streets around 5 p.m. Road crews were already nearby, filling in an indentation in the street, when the collapse occurred. No injuries were reported.

The incident appears to have been caused by a sewer main break at the same location, although the cause of the break is not yet known. Water and sewer service has not been affected, however.

Crews have secured the scene, and Sacramento Street is closed between Lyon and Baker. Muni lines have not been affected. Repairs, which will begin Friday morning, are expected to take two to three days to complete.


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New sinkholes drain 2 more rivers in Mexico

Atoyac river
Almost completely dried up…
Two rivers in the mountains of the Mexican Gulf state of Veracruz have started to dry up following the appearance of sinkholes, bringing to three the number of rivers in the region that have drained into the subsoil in less than two months, officials said.

Residents and officials said the flow of the Tliapa and Tlacuapa rivers has been reduced by half, with the water streaming into sinkholes.

The rivers start in the mountain cities of Chocaman and Calcahualco, and flow into the Seco River in Cordoba, a city in central Veracruz.

Residents of the community of Tecolotla told officials that the first sinkhole formed in a place called Puente de Piedra, where water from one of the rivers began draining into the subsoil.

A second sinkhole appeared about one kilometer (0.62 miles) downriver, beyond where the two rivers join, residents said.

"The Tliapa and Tlacuapa rivers have now reduced their flow by up to 50 percent," Tomatlan emergency management chief Tobias Carrillo Morales said.

Comment: See also: Segments of Atoyac River in Mexico disappear overnight after giant crack opens


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75-foot by 45-foot crater swallows high school basketball court in Huntington Park, California

Huntington Park crater
© Via Facebook/Fox11
The crater measures about 75 feet by 45 feet. Regardless, class remained in session Tuesday at Linda Esperanza Marquez High School in Huntington Park, California.

The school, which opened in 2013, is built on the rubble of "a former toxic concrete mountain" known as "La Montaña."

But according to officials, there is no known correlation between the current crater and the ground beneath the school.
Huntington Park crater
© Via Facebook/Fox11
Sinkhole or man-made?

News channels describe the collapse in the concrete as a sinkhole. In contrast school officials argue the crater is the result of an underground water retention and recharge system built during the school's construction in 2012.


Video

Video shows massive sinkhole open up on street in California

sinkhole
© unknown
A large sinkhole has appeared on a street in California causing the roadway to collapse.

Video of the incident was posted online by the City of Madera Police.

"A large portion of the roadway on Schnoor Avenue, north of Howard Avenue and south of 5th Street, has collapsed."

"The street fell into the sewage line. So far about 12 ft. by 15 ft. section of roadway has collapsed, and it is approximately 15 to 20 feet deep."


Comment: Recommended reading: Review: "Earth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection"


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Huge sinkhole swallows Des Moines, Iowa front yard

Sinkhole
A sinkhole appeared overnight in the front yard of a south side Des Moines home and it keeps growing.

The homeowner at 4103 SW 5th Street was awakened by neighbors who noticed the sinkhole around 12:30 a.m. Tuesday when it began swallowing a hedge. By 7:00 a.m. the hole had expanded dramatically, even sucking down a tree.

Officials say it is about 40 feet deep and still expanding.
The area around the sinkhole has been cordoned off.

Southwest 5th Street has been blocked off in the area.


Bizarro Earth

Massive sinkhole opens up for second time near Baltimore, Maryland

sinkhole linthicum maryland
It has downed large trees, a large portion of a chain-link fence and virtually anything else in its path.

It's a 15-by-40 foot sinkhole, and Lucy Miller says it's creeping closer to her house every day.

"It's moving, and it's moving towards my property and I don't want these trees to all come down and I don't want anybody to get hurt," Miller said. "That's my problem."

Miller and her husband, Jerry, approached the nearby Lynn Hill Apartments about the problem and were told the hole is on county land.

The county said it was the state, because it sits along a state road, and the state pointed back to the apartment complex as the owner of the land.

"It seems that someone could go to the records bureau some place and pull out the deed to see who owns the property, but it seems to be too much of a bother for somebody or they just don't want to admit it," Jerry Miller said.

Info

Movement of water around the world contributes to Earth's rotational wobbles says NASA

Earth's Spin Axis
© NASA/JPL-CaltechEarth does not always spin on an axis running through its poles. Instead, it wobbles irregularly over time, drifting toward North America throughout most of the 20th Century (green arrow). That direction has changed drastically due to changes in water mass on Earth.
Using satellite data on how water moves around Earth, NASA scientists have solved two mysteries about wobbles in the planet's rotation -- one new and one more than a century old. The research may help improve our knowledge of past and future climate.

Although a desktop globe always spins smoothly around the axis running through its north and south poles, a real planet wobbles. Earth's spin axis drifts slowly around the poles; the farthest away it has wobbled since observations began is 37 feet (12 meters). These wobbles don't affect our daily life, but they must be taken into account to get accurate results from GPS, Earth-observing satellites and observatories on the ground.

In a paper published today in Science Advances, Surendra Adhikari and Erik Ivins of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, researched how the movement of water around the world contributes to Earth's rotational wobbles. Earlier studies have pinpointed many connections between processes on Earth's surface or interior and our planet's wandering ways. For example, Earth's mantle is still readjusting to the loss of ice on North America after the last ice age, and the reduced mass beneath that continent pulls the spin axis toward Canada at the rate of a few inches each year. But some motions are still puzzling.

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Large sinkhole forms in San Diego causing landslide near homes

San Diego landslide
© Fox 5A house appears to be compromised after land slides into canyon in the College Area.
A portion of land slid down into a canyon behind a house in the College area after a large sinkhole formed Wednesday morning, officials said.

"They saw a large portion of the earth give way behind this address," said Captain Joe Amador, San Diego Fire & Rescue. Captain Amador described the slide as 30 to 40 feet wide and about 150 feet up the ravine. He said crews were called to home 5600 block of Dorothy Way just after 9AM.

"Reportedly some of the neighbors heard noises last night even up to 2 or 3 nights ago," said Amador. "There was no hazards, no body was hurt , we sealed off the area with bannered tape."

No one was hurt, but the slide has neighbors living on edge. "I hope it doesn't come on my side," said Julia Bain, neighbor.
Bain is one of the original residents in the neighborhood. "We built here in 1954, my father built the home with a contractor," said Bain.

Julia said she's pretty sure her home is stable and safe. "There are pillars that go down some 20 feet under the house itself, my house should be safe," said Bain. "I'm a little nervous with the rains this week. I am a little concerned."

City engineers red-tagged the pool and shed of the home, late Wednesday evening the main house was declared safe. Julia hopes the landslide will not grow. "This is my home of 60 years and I don't know what I'd do if I have problems here," said Bain

Rose

Sinkhole swallows house, gardens and courtyards in Hanoi, Vietnam

Vietnam sinkhole
© Cận cảnh “hố tử thần” khổng lồ ở Hà Nội
Hundreds of people living in Hoa Lac village (Tien commune, My Duc District, Hanoi) rushed out of their homes after hearing a terrifying noise outside.There they discovered a monster gap of 10 meters in diameter and 7 meters deepth that swallowed the main road. The Death Pit!

The giant sinkhole opened up at around 8:30 am. It swallowed a house and injureda few residents. No one died in this terrifying event. Initially the sinkhole was only 1 meter in diameter. Now, it has swallowed parts of a house and could expand more, thus panicking residents living around.
Vietnam sinkhole
© Cận cảnh “hố tử thần” khổng lồ ở Hà Nội
Five households have been affected by this natural disaster. Gardens, courtyards, auxiliary buildings (bathroom, toilet) and a house have been swallowed. Other buildings have cracks in the walls.

In 2016 and 2010, similar events occurred just 100 meters away. Moreover, some gigantic holes also formed in the fields around the village. The soil is most probably over-saturated with water. A stream was flowing through the village a few years ago and may have eroded the ground.


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Huge sinkhole opens on Bangkok motorway days after similar collapse swallows truck on same road

Bangkok sinkhole
© You Tube
The deep cavern which stretched almost 400ft (120 metres) opened up on the road out of the blue

This was the shocking scene on a motorway after the road suddenly collapsed revealing a huge 13ft deep sinkhole. The deep cavern which stretched almost 400ft (120 metres) opened up on a road north of Bangkok in Thailand.

It comes just days after a truck overturned after being pulled into a similar crack in the road a few days earlier. Authorities have closed the road indefinitely and inspectors have reported finding small cracks at various point along the carriageway.
Bangkok sinkhole
© You Tube
Thitinan Charoen-ard, chief administrator of Sananlak municipality led officials on a inspection of the area. She said the water level at a nearby canal had fallen significantly and could be related to the collapse.