Florida sinkhole that swallowed two homes has stopped growing, officials say

[turbinetree]

Source: The Guardian

Officials said on Saturday that a huge sinkhole that swallowed a boat and destroyed two homes in Florida had stopped growing and had not had any recent significant movement.

Pasco County assistant administrator for public safety Kevin Guthrie said the sinkhole was the largest in the county in three decades. The sinkhole is 250ft wide and 50ft deep.

Guthrie said 11 homes had been affected, including the two that were destroyed. A third home lost about 45ft of driveway and a septic tank.

On Friday, Pasco County fire chief Shawn Whited told reporters no one was home when crews responded to a call about a “depression” under a boat in the backyard of a house in Lake Padgett Estates in Land O’Lakes. Within minutes, he said, “the hole opened up” and the boat fell in.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/15/florida-sinkhole-swallowed-homes-destroyed

[Submariner]

1. A sinkhole swallowing Mar-A-Lago

and disappearing the whole thing would be a great story to cap off the weekend.

[turbinetree]

2. With him in his golf cart

[cstanleytech]

3. Wouldnt work, he is so rancid that the sinkhole would simply vomit him up. nt

[Sunlei]

4. I bet no one can get home insurance in the area or the quotes are sky high.

[Hestia]

5. PBS NOVA - Sinkholes

Extremely informative program on how sinkholes are formed. Draining of groundwater, extreme drought, massive amounts of rain, building upon karst (sp?).

The program covers sinkholes around the world, not just in the US.

[csziggy]

6. I wonder what liability the "stabilizing companies" have?

From the article linked in the OP:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
County property records showed there was a sinkhole at the property where the first house was swallowed up, and that it had been stabilized in 2014. The home was sold in 2015, according to records. Messages left for its owner were not immediately returned.

Sinkholes are stabilized by boring holes into the ground and injecting concrete.

Records also showed that a sinkhole was stabilized at the partially destroyed home in 2007. Two sisters renting that home with four other family members said they had left the house early on Friday and returned to see their neighbor’s home falling into the sinkhole.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My father was a phosphate mining engineer in Central Florida and did prospecting for phosphate - drilling cores to assay how deep and how much phosphate was underground. So he was extremely familiar with the underlying structure of the Florida land.

In the 1960s when there were a large number of sinkholes in Polk County, people contacted him and wanted him to drill under their houses or house sites to see if there were underground caverns that could cave in and become sinkholes. He told them that the best idea would be to put steel beams under their foundations so if the ground started opening up, they could "tow" the houses away from the unstable area. I don't think anyone thought that practical.

The process of "stabilizing" the ground where there are sinkholes is just not practical in my opinion. Karst topography, the type of land where sinkholes form, is riddled with underground caverns and passages many of which are linked. The limestone that forms the underlying structure is very porous and easily dis-solvable.

The concept is that they pump material to fill the holes and keep the structure from washing away but that will not prevent the limestone around the introduced material from dissolving. Think of filling a sponge with a solid, then dissolving the material of the original sponge - the solid will not stay cohesive and can wash away.

So...I wonder if the companies that claimed they had stabilized the sinkholes in 2007 and 20014 have insurance to cover the families losses?