Subsidence

Among Interzone's less glamorous attractions, it bears the status of being the sinkhole capital of the world. (Well, maybe. I just made that title up but I feel certain it's true.)

Yesterday in Holiday, FL, a huge sinkhole appeared in someone's driveway, swallowed their car, and is still growing. Because of its proximity, the home has now been condemned. Six other families have also been evacuated while officials assess the sinkhole's potential for further expansion. Unfortunately, because the sinkhole is on private property, the insurer of the home will be stuck with the check for paying someone to do a geological survey and responsible for remediation of the problem.

And now, a second sinkhole has appeared in front of another house in the same neighborhood, and at this hour I'm hearing a third sinkhole is possible nearby. You just never know where one is going to strike next, and it can happen literally anywhere in Florida. Kinda keeps a person on their toes at all times. Well, that, and the panthers, gators, bears, pythons, and zombies. Ain't we got fun!

But Holiday's sinkhole problem didn't start here. A month ago, a 30-foot one opened up in the middle of Blue Marlin Boulevard causing traffic snarls.

Two weeks ago, a sinkhole closed down a highway in Port St. John. Four weeks ago, a woman in Ocala was forced to evacuate her home when a sinkhole appeared beneath it. A month prior, a sinkhole erupted in the middle of the airport runway at Jacksonville Naval Base, causing planes to have to divert their flight. Then there's the one that opened up in the street on 15th Avenue in St. Petersburg, and a hundred-foot-wide one that struck in Madison.

Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you may sink.

Exploding Sinkholes

According to a story from ABC, a 120-foot wide and 30-foot deep sinkhole appeared on July 19th in Spring Hill. Sinkholes happen in Florida with alarming regularity, but what makes this one special to me is the way an eyewitness described it:

"Out of nowhere the earth just went straight up in the air and exploded up in the air," said Margaret Helmick, who lives in the neighborhood.

This makes it sound much less like a mere incidence of subsidence, and much more like bottled-up methane or hydrogen sulfide underground. I'm also reminded of another recent incident, the Yamal Crater in Russia, which has baffled scientists by its abrupt appearance.

No one's sure when the giant chasm occurred, but it was first noticed on July 11. That its location is near a natural gas field has caused some concern, and though it was originally thought to be a meteor impact site, it is now apparent that whatever happened, it happened from inside and exploded outward.