what are sinkholes?

Answer 1

Sinkholes are common where the rock below the land surface is limestone, carbonate rock, salt beds, or rocks that can naturally be dissolved by ground water circulating through them. As the rock dissolves, spaces and caverns develop underground. Sinkholes are dramatic because the land usually stays intact for a while until the underground spaces just get too big. If there is not enough support for the land above the spaces then a sudden collapse of the land surface can occur. These collapses can be small, as this picture shows, or they can be huge and can occur where a house or road is on top.

The most damage from sinkholes tends to occur in Florida, Texas, Alabama, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania. The picture to the left shows a sinkhole that quickly opened up in Florida, apparently eating a swimming pool, some roadway, and buildings.

http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/earthgwsinkholes.html
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGIH,GGIH:2006-46,GGIH:en&q=what+are+sink+holes

Answer 2

When there is a porous and soluble rock layer beneath the earth but close to the surface water can flow into and out of it. If the water has the correct pH to dissolve the rock voids can form. If these voids become large enough, through time, the overlying rock collapses into the voids, filling them, and leaving a sinkhole at the surface. The soluble rocks in sinkhole country usually are limestone, because it is composed of calcium carbonate, which is readily soluble in low pH (acidic) solutions commonly found in ground water. Sinkholes and caverns are characteristic of the type of surface known as Karst Topography.

Answer 3

A sinkhole, also known as a sink, shakehole, swallow hole, doline (in the Slovene language dolina means valley) or cenote, is a natural depression or hole in the surface topography caused by the removal of soil or bedrock, often both, by water. Sinkholes may vary in size from less than a meter to several hundred meters 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.

Mechanism of formation may include the gradual removal of slightly soluble bedrock (such as limestone) by percolating water, the collapse of a cave roof, or a lowering of the water table. Occasionally a sinkhole may exhibit a visible opening into a cave below. In the case of exceptionally large sinkholes, such as Cedar Sink at Mammoth Cave National Park, a stream or river may be visible across its bottom flowing from one side to the other.

Sinkholes may capture surface drainage for running or a standing water, but may also form in currently high and dry locations. Florida is known for having frequent sinkholes, especially in the central part of the state.

Sinkholes are usually but not always linked with karst landscapes. In such regions, there may be hundreds or even thousands of sinkholes in a small area so that the surface as seen from the air looks pock-marked, and there are no surface streams because all drainage occurs sub-surface.

Sinkholes have for centuries been used as disposal sites for various forms of waste. A consequence of this is the pollution of groundwater resources, with serious health implications in such areas.

Sinkholes also form from human activity, such as the rare but still occasional collapse of abandoned mines in places like West Virginia. More commonly, sinkholes occur in urban areas due to water main breaks or sewer collapses when old pipes give way. They can also occur from the overpumping and extraction of groundwater and subsurface fluids.

When sinkholes are very deep or connected to caves, they may offer challenges for experienced cavers or, when water-filled, divers. Some of the most spectacular are the Zacaton cenote in Mexico, the Boesmansgat sinkhole in South Africa, Sarisariñama tepuy in Venezuela, and in the town of Mount Gambier, South Australia.

You could get more information from the link below...

Answer 4

A sinkhole, also known as a sink, shakehole, swallow hole, doline (in the Slovene language dolina means valley) or cenote, is a natural depression or hole in the surface topography caused by the removal of soil or bedrock, often both, by water. Sinkholes may vary in size from less than a meter to several hundred meters 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.

Mechanism of formation may include the gradual removal of slightly soluble bedrock (such as limestone) by percolating water, the collapse of a cave roof, or a lowering of the water table. Occasionally a sinkhole may exhibit a visible opening into a cave below. In the case of exceptionally large sinkholes, such as Cedar Sink at Mammoth Cave National Park, a stream or river may be visible across its bottom flowing from one side to the other.

Sinkholes may capture surface drainage for running or a standing water, but may also form in currently high and dry locations. Florida is known for having frequent sinkholes, especially in the central part of the state.


A special type of sinkhole - formed by rainwater leaking through the pavement and carrying dirt into a ruptured sewer pipeSinkholes are usually but not always linked with karst landscapes. In such regions, there may be hundreds or even thousands of sinkholes in a small area so that the surface as seen from the air looks pock-marked, and there are no surface streams because all drainage occurs sub-surface.

Sinkholes have for centuries been used as disposal sites for various forms of waste. A consequence of this is the pollution of groundwater resources, with serious health implications in such areas.

Sinkholes also form from human activity, such as the rare but still occasional collapse of abandoned mines in places like West Virginia. More commonly, sinkholes occur in urban areas due to water main breaks or sewer collapses when old pipes give way. They can also occur from the overpumping and extraction of groundwater and subsurface fluids.

When sinkholes are very deep or connected to caves, they may offer challenges for experienced cavers or, when water-filled, divers. Some of the most spectacular are the Zacaton cenote in Mexico, the Boesmansgat sinkhole in South Africa, Sarisariñama tepuy in Venezuela, and in the town of Mount Gambier, South Australia.

Answer 5

The Mendip Hills incorporate some hundreds of closed hollows widely used as sinkholes or dolines. those are in many situations small yet may well be as much as twenty m in intensity and a hundred m or extra in diameter. Sinkholes advance by a kind of approaches: cave in, suffosion or answer. cave in sinkholes form while an underlying cave passage collapses forming a melancholy on the exterior above. those sinkholes are surely fairly uncommon, as caves are in many situations fairly stable. around Smitham Hill, there are some examples the place cave in of cavities interior the underlying Carboniferous Limestone, aided by leakage even with the indisputable fact that a skinny disguise of Jurassic or Triassic mudstone, has propagated as much as the exterior transforming into a sinkhole. Sandpit hollow, close to Priddy, is yet another occasion of a cave in sinkhole. maximum sinkholes form by the ideas-set of ‘suffosion’. it is the place unfastened, unconsolidated textile inclusive of soil, ‘head’, loess and clay overlies fissures and joints interior the underlying limestone, and textile is washed into those fissures and into the caves below. Suffosion sinkholes tend to advance progressively (over months or years) because of the fact the masking sediment slumps into open fissures interior the underlying limestone, transforming into a void which migrates in direction of the exterior ultimately transforming into a sinkhole. answer sinkholes form by the choppy dissolution of the underlying limestone, transforming into a vast saucer-like sinkhole. a stable occasion is Bishops Lot on the line between Milton, close to Wells and the Hunter’s hotel hotel in Priddy. Others take place the place a pass sinks underground, transforming into a blind valley. even even with the indisputable fact that a organic technique, the formation of sinkholes is in lots of situations sped up or extra on by human moves. broken land drains, water mains and sewerage pipes, greater rainfall, typhoon activities, changed drainage and diverted floor water can all help wash sediment into the underlying limestone, inflicting subsidence. there have been many nicely documented occurrences of sinkholes forming below broken water mains, unlined typhoon-water culverts and leaking swimming pools

Answer 6

Its where a large section of ground gives away & usally dis-
sappears leaving a big hole or crater. Normally they only
occur in Fl. or Calif. where there are major water arteries under
the ground. In some cases, cars have fallen into the holes.

Answer 7

Areas where the dirt @ sand wash out under the top layer , then the top layer falls in ., Leaving a large hole in the ground

Answer 8

The pipe that goes down so the water goes out of your sink. there are toilet holes and bathtub holes and shower holes also.

Answer 9

what i think sink holes are that when crabs dig holes in the sand & the water runs over it and gets the water in the sand

Answer 10

It's nature's equivelent to credit card companies.