On February 28, 2013, a sinkhole opened beneath the home of a Florida man. The man, who was in his bedroom, was sucked into the sinkhole, buried, and presumed dead. Only a few weeks later, a man on an Illinois golf course was swallowed into a sinkhole, but was rescued with only a shoulder injury.
Geologically, sinkholes are depressions in the ground with no natural external surface drainage. According to a March New York Times article, there have been numerous reports of sinkholes from all over the United States this past spring. Randall Orndorff, the director of the Eastern Geology and Paleoclimate Science Center at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) explained that sinkholes are common.
But based on information from USGS, Connecticut residents should not lose sleep over whether they will disappear into the earth via a sinkhole. Sinkholes are most common in areas of “karst terrain” which is where the rock under the land surface can naturally dissolve by circulating groundwater. Such rock includes salt beds and domes, gypsum, limestone, and other carbonate rocks. About 20% of the U.S. is susceptible to a sinkhole event with most sinkhole damage occurring in Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Texas.
For more information about sinkholes, watch Randall Orndorff briefly describe them in this YouTube video.
