Sinkholes
S


Arrow Down

Gigantic sinkhole near Eden Prairie, Minnesota home forces demolition


kare11.com
Mon, 02 Jun 2014 10:29 UTC
Image
© KAREThe Eden Prairie City Council has ordered the demolition of a home that sits on the edge of a huge sinkhole that was caused by Sunday's massive downpours.
Sunday's epic rain event will force the demolition of a home in Eden Prairie that is now perched on the edge of a gigantic sinkhole.

The Eden Prairie City Council voted in an emergency meeting early Monday to adopt a resolution ordering the demolition and removal of the structure located at 11201 Burr Ridge Lane. The emergency meeting was called after the residence was declared uninhabitable due to the imminent risk of failure and collapse from damage sustained during yesterday's rain event.

"It's pretty surreal," says homeowner Revie Zurn. "It's all of a sudden we're moving out stuff out and trying to start somewhere else."

Heavy rains caused the land between homes at 11201 and 11211 Burr Ridge Lane to give way and slide down into the Purgatory Creek valley. Prior to this event, the City of Eden Prairie had contracted with SEH (Short Elliott Hendrickson, Inc.) and NWA (Northwest Asphalt) to repair the stormwater sewer system serving the neighborhood, a project that was still in progress when the downpours struck. .

Read More...
Blue Planet

Best of the Web: Signs of change: Video round-up of extreme weather and seismic activity in May 2014

HawkkeyDavis
YouTube
Sun, 01 Jun 2014 08:59 UTC
Image
Record flooding in the Balkans last month
Large scale disasters continue to strike with regularity, causing catastrophic damage to multiple areas around the globe, and leaving hundreds of thousands of people displaced. Rare, strange, unusually extreme and 'biblical' weather conditions have taken place the past week or so. Also included are some dramatically breathtaking weather events caught on video last month.

Thanks for watching and stay safe! Have a plan in order!

Read More...
Arrow Down

Huge 16ft wide sinkhole uncovered by highways engineers in Somerset, UK

Charlotte Wareing
Daily Mirror, UK
Mon, 02 Jun 2014 08:04 UTC
Image
Sinking: A gaping chasm measuring 16ft wide in Somerset
The road workers were expecting to find a small dent in one of Somerset's roads but were instead faced with a real sinking feeling

Road workers got more than they bargained for when the pothole they were sent to inspect turned out to be a gaping chasm 11ft deep.

The giant sinkhole - which measured 16ft wide, was found by workers at Somerset County Council.

The huge pit was so deep it needed 200 tonnes of stone to fill it before draining and resurfacing works could take place.

Harvey Siggs, cabinet member for highways at Somerset County Council, said it was unclear what caused the massive hole.
Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Large sinkhole opens up in Jonesville, Florida

Morgan Watkins
The Gainesville Sun
Mon, 02 Jun 2014 14:28 UTC
Jonesville Sinkhole
© Brad McClenny/The Gainesville Sun

A sinkhole has opened up in a field near Newberry Road in Jonesville.

A large sinkhole has opened up near the Campus USA Credit Union near Newberry Road in Jonesville, although Alachua County Environmental Protection Director Chris Bird said he doesn't have much information on the situation yet.

Bird said he heard the sinkhole is located on a private property that may be a farm near the credit union but doesn't know for sure yet.

At this point, he is waiting to get a field report from an EPD employee who has headed out to look into the matter.
Read More...
Arrow Down

Indiana sinkhole swallows car with 4 people


Evansville Courier & Press
Fri, 30 May 2014 10:01 UTC
Image
© Kevin Swank, The Evansville Courier & PressTimothy Stone , of Evansville, said that he and three passengers were in a car heading east on West Oregon Street at Main Street in Evansville, when they stopped for stop sign and then the car “felt weird” and started to sink They were able to get out of the passenger side of the car, and then the front of the can went down into the hole. No one was injured. Allen Mounts, director of the Water & Sewer Utility, said the cave-in was caused by the collapse of a 72-inch sewer. A six-inch water main was also broken in the collapse. Two wreckers were used to remove the car from hole, which an Evansville police report described as 12 feet in diameter and 16 feet deep.
Using two wreckers, employees with Tri-State Towing managed to remove a 2003 Ford Taurus from a sinkhole at West Oregon Street and Main Street in Evansville on Friday afternoon.

Timothy Stone, of Evansville, said that he and three passengers were in a car heading east on West Oregon Street at Main Street in Evansville, when they stopped for a stop sign and then the car "felt weird" and started to sink.

They were able to get out of the passenger side of the car and then the front of the car went down into the hole. No one was injured.

Allen Mounts, director of the Water & Sewer Utility, said the cave-in was caused by the collapse of a 72-inch sewer. A six-inch water main was also broken in the collapse. Two wreckers were used to remove the car from hole, which an Evansville police report described as 12 feet in diameter and 16 feet deep.

Comment:

Heat map.



Read More...
Arrow Down

Sinkhole develops in parking lot in Winter Haven, Florida

Cody Dulaney
The Ledger
Thu, 29 May 2014 11:16 UTC
Image
The sink hole is about 5 feet deep and 30 feet wide, however police say the parking lot continues to buckle in areas out from the hole.
A possible sinkhole has developed in a Publix supermarket parking lot across from the entrance to Legoland and continues to spread.

The hole is approximately 30 feet wide and 5 feet deep, said Jamie Brown, spokeswoman with the Winter Haven Police Department.

Cracks and ripples in the pavement show it continues to spread farther away from the hole and toward Cypress Gardens Boulevard, Brown said.

Police and fire personnel are at the Publix, 6031 Cypress Gardens Blvd., ensuring public safety if the hole continues to open, Brown said.

Geologists are on their way to the scene to determine if it is a sinkhole and how big it is.

The parking lot is private property for the shopping center that houses Publix, K-Mart and several other outlets. Police have not evacuated anyone from the area and stores continue to remain open. No injuries have been reported.
Read More...
Arrow Down

Second sinkhole opens up in Newcastle, Australia


The Guardian
Wed, 28 May 2014 07:27 UTC
Image
© NBN NewsThe first sinkhole, in Swansea Heads, near Lake Macquarie.
New, smaller hole opens two doors away from 20m by 10m crater above old coalmine in NSW's Hunter region

A second sinkhole has appeared in an upmarket neighbourhood south of Newcastle, prompting fears more land could collapse into an old mine shaft that appears to have caused the erosion.

The first sinkhole, measuring up to 20m wide and 10m deep, developed on Tuesday night next to a three-storey home on Lambton Parade in plush Swansea Heads, near Lake Macquarie.

A husband and wife returned to their seaside property about two hours after the hole developed next to their front deck, swallowing tonnes of dirt and debris.

A second, smaller sinkhole developed on Wednesday morning in the front garden of a property two doors down. It measured about two metres across.

The area beneath the street was once part of the Swansea pit, a coalmine abandoned in the 1950s. The Mine Subsistence Board is now leading an investigation into the sinkholes, including checks to ensure the stability and structural integrity of surrounding homes.
Read More...
Arrow Down

Detroit falls apart: Another giant sinkhole opens up in blighted city - fourth since January

James Rush
Daily Mail
Wed, 14 May 2014 12:07 UTC
Image
A sinkhole big enough to swallow a car appeared over the weekend in a street in the west side of Detroit
* Hole big enough to swallow a car appeared in Detroit street over weekend

* Neighbours said the sinkhole had been a problem for weeks

* It is at least the fourth sinkhole reported in the city since January

A giant sinkhole big enough to swallow a car has appeared in the middle of a Detroit road in the latest reported case of craters opening up in the city's streets.

The 10ft hole appeared over the weekend in a road in a busy neighbourhood on the west side of the city.

It is at least the fourth time a sinkhole has been reported to have appeared in Detroit since January.
Read More...
Target

Best of the Web: Signs of change: Extreme weather, seismic activity, and meteor fireballs in April and early May 2014

HawkkeyDavis
YouTube
Wed, 14 May 2014 07:33 UTC
Image
The uptick in earthquake activity continues all along the Ring of Fire. At the center of these changes, the United States dealt with "historic flooding" which was labelled a "one-in-500-year event"!

So much more has taken place over the last month or so than this video shows. Deluges continue to hit heavily populated areas. Be prepared for large-scale disasters in your area. It has and it will continue to worsen, whether we like or not. Stay safe and thanks for watching!

Read More...
Sun

Forget global warming and melting polar caps - groundwater extraction is causing cities to sink beneath sea level

Anthony Watts
Watts Up With That
Thu, 01 May 2014 14:31 UTC
Image
© Wikimedia
There is a story in the Daily Mail cited by the GWPF which talks about subsidence due to groundwater extraction. For example, North Jakarta Indonesia has sunk four meters in the last 35 years, with other parts of the city also affected, and the impact of subsidence combined with heavy rain and high tides can be seen in the photo at right.

The gist of the study is that in some cities, subsidence is now exceeding sea level rise.

It is something to think about and cite the next time there is an alarming story about sea level "inundating" some city with a coastal flood.

Here are some excerpts and an abstract:
Read More...