Sinkhole swallows Queensland beach

[nitpicker1]

Sinkhole swallows Queensland beach
Last updated 09:51 27/06/2011

VIDEO here, check link to view   

A sinkhole up to 100m long and 50m deep has opened up on a south-east Queensland beach.

The hole appeared at Inskip Point, Rainbow Beach, on Saturday night and continued to grow yesterday. It is estimated to be up to 50m deep.

Greg Haring, manager of Adventure Centre 4WD Hire at Rainbow Beach near Gympie, said he had seen footage of the hole taken by customers and was shocked.

"It is a sizeable hole that's opened up on the beach. It's about 100m long. Some of the trees are collapsing into it," he told Ten News.

Mr Haring said while sink holes appeared in the area occasionally, it was by far the largest he had ever seen.

"They get sinkholes on a semi-regular basis but I haven't experienced one that far south," he said.

"They certainly do occur from time to time. Usually they're about 5 or 10m long, nothing of this size."

Police and emergency services said late yesterday they had not been contacted about the matter.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/australia/5196380/Sinkhole-swallows-Queensland-beach

[ssweetpea]

Could this the source of all that liquafaction silt clogging up Christchurch?

[TokGal]

What causes them, and why is the sand that was the beach floating? I would have thought  it would have sunk to the bottom.

[nitpicker1]

Could this the source of all that liquafaction silt clogging up Christchurch?

Don't swim near bottomless beach at Inskip Point
Andrew Macdonald From: The Courier-Mail
June 28, 2011 12:01AM

AUTHORITIES are urging swimmers to steer clear of a "bottomless'' section of coast north of Tin Can Bay after a sinkhole ate a gigantic chunk out of the beach at Inskip Point, near the southern tip of Fraser Island.

A Canberra-based landslide and disaster risk management scientist said liquefaction similar to that experienced during the Christchurch earthquake probably caused the loss of more than 200m of the popular beach.

Stunned campers and locals watched as the sinkhole swallowed entire trees and signage within hours on  Sunday.

Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service rangers yesterday erected traffic barriers and signs warning beachgoers of potential risks.

QPWS regional manager Ross Belcher said the erosion appeared to have stabilised slightly but it was expected to be "some weeks'' before sand began rejuvenating the beach.

He said experts were yet to establish the depth of the affected section of coast and urged swimmers to avoid the area.

"It might be a bit of sand but really it's just bottomless at the moment (because) we don't have any further information,'' he said.

Mr Belcher said such erosion was not unprecedented at Inskip Point but the event was the largest in recent memory.

Landslide expert Dr Marion Leiba said the sinkhole was probably caused by an eddy or loop current creating turbulence in the water and destabilising sand.

"Sand is permeable, which means the water gets into it, and when you get enough water pressure it holds the grains apart and it turns into quicksand,'' she said.

"It loses cohesion and it just sort of collapses down. It's sucked down into the bottom of the water.''

Dr Leiba said the liquefaction phenomenon at Inskip Point was similar to that experienced during the Christchurch earthquakes earlier this year.

"In that case, it was a permeable layer underneath the houses where the mud and the silt has liquefied and bubbled,'' she said.

Dr Leiba said ocean currents would dictate if the Inskip Point hole expanded.
 
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/dont-swim-near-bottomless-beach-at-inskip-point/story-e6freoof-1226083028535



Perhaps someone pulled the ocean's plug and we're all gonna be sucked into the bowels of the earth

[nitpicker1]

What causes them, and why is the sand that was the beach floating? I would have thought  it would have sunk to the bottom.

maybe it's froth and dry sand. I have a vid somewnere of some froth we get here after a storm , feel I could walk on it

[nitpicker1]

Beach disappears down hole
Arthur Gorrie | 28th June 2011

Visitors watch nature at work at Inskip Point at the weekend.


IT started as a small hole on the beach at Inskip Pt but, as the sand kept collapsing, it soon grew to 30m diameter and showed no sign of stopping.
That was 10am Saturday. Then it reached the dunes, trees started dropping into the boiling sandy sea water and stunned beach goers moved children and vehicles out of the way.

By yesterday, it looked big enough to swallow at least one sports field, with one estimate putting its size at 200m across.

Fortunately, the sink hole that seemed insatiable has stopped, with the ocean already returning the famous Inskip beach to normal.

“It was incredible,” Cooroy visitor Jim Wyers said of the sink hole, which he witnessed as it began to swallow a big part of the earth beneath his feet.

Mr Wyers also took some dramatic photos of the beach breaking into segments as it fell into the ocean.

“My son saw it early on, when it was about 20m wide.

“We did what campers do and had breakfast before coming back for another look.

“That’s when our jaws dropped. There were trees falling in and signs washed away and helicopters flying around.

“The beach has already started to come back, but on Saturday you couldn’t see the bottom – it just kept dropping and dropping and getting bigger.

“What started out as a little horseshoe shaped area kept eating into the sides.

“One local said he’d seen it before and it would eat into the forest.

“He was right. It took an hour or more, but it just kept eating into the beach.

“It’s been good for us because it means drivers are having to use the road instead of the beach,” he said.

The bottomless hole that suddenly opened up in the popular beach was also a shock for Hervey Bay visitor Ron Morgan.

Mr Morgan said he thought it was possible the erosion might be because the fresh-water table was so full from recent rain that a spring had bubbled up through the sand, destabilising the beach.

A Queensland Parks and Wildlife spokesman predicted a rapid return to normal conditions.

He told AAP the erosion was not connected with tourists or 4WD vehicles driving on the sand.

Camp sites were well out of harm’s way and the spokesman said the beach was on a peninsula largely surrounded by water, making this sort of erosion.

Sink holes are often, but not exclusively associated with limestone country, where sub-surface rock can be dissolved and washed out.

http://www.gympietimes.com.au/story/2011/06/28/going-down-fast-beach-disappears-down-hole/

might be because the fresh-water table was so full from recent rain that a spring had bubbled up through the sand, destabilising the beach. 

for further pix of other sinkholes , go goog keywords  sinkholes images

Click on an image to go to it's website

[Magoo]

It was amazing to watch that just washing away.       No arguing with nature.

[nitpicker1]

Interesting site???  just found this:


Stressed out: on the verge of a major geological event in the Pacific?

Posted on June 26, 2011
http://theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com/2011/06/26/stressed-out-on-the-verge-of-a-major-geological-event-in-the-pacific/

...A 5.4 earthquake struck Northern Queensland on April 16 and a 100 meter-wide section of the beach dropped into the Pacific just yesterday....

[nitpicker1]

better to read the story and let your imagination run, 'cos the vid will probably  disappoint ya (or not, as the case may be.)

Man swallowed by sinkhole in Florida

Last updated 07:14 02/03/2013

A huge sinkhole opened up under a man's bedroom and swallowed him as he screamed for help. He was missing Friday and feared dead.

Officials lowered equipment into the sinkhole but didn't see any sign of life. Jeremy Bush, who was at the home near Tampa, said it took him only seconds to get to his brother's room about 11 p.m. Thursday. He jumped into the hole and dirt was quickly up to his neck.

"The floor was still giving in and the dirt was still going down, but I didn't care. I wanted to save my brother," he said. "But I just couldn't do nothing."

Jeremy Bush had to be helped out of the sinkhole by a Hillsborough County sheriff's deputy. Bush stood in a neighbor's yard across the street from the house Friday and recounted the harrowing collapse.

"He was screaming my name. I could swear I heard him hollering my name to help him," he said of his brother.

Engineers worked to determine the size of the sinkhole. At the surface, officials estimated it was about 30 feet across. Below the surface, officials believed it was 100 feet wide.

From the outside of the small, sky blue house, nothing appeared wrong. There wear no cracks and the only sign something was amiss was the yellow caution tape circling the house.

Jeremy Bush's wife and his 2-year-old daughter were also inside the house. "She keeps asking where her Uncle Jeff is," he said. "I lost everything. I work so hard to support my wife and kid and I lost everything."

Hillsborough County Sheriff's Deputy Douglas Duvall said he helped Jeremy Bush as the bedroom was still collapsing.

"I reached down and was able to actually able to get him by his hand and pull him out of the hole. The hole was collapsing. At that time, we left the house," Duvall said.

Hillsborough County Fire Rescue spokeswoman Jessica Damico said when Duvall arrived, there was nothing left of the bedroom.

"There was no furniture. All he saw was a piece of the mattress sticking up," she said.

"We put engineering equipment into the sinkhole and didn't see anything compatible with life," Damico said. "The entire house is on the sinkhole."

Neighbors on both sides of the home have been evacuated.

Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office spokesman Larry McKinnon said authorities asked sinkhole and engineering experts, and they were using equipment to see if the ground can support the weight of heavy machinery needed for the recovery effort.


- AP

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/8373340/Man-swallowed-by-sinkhole-in-Florida

[Magoo]

Neighbors on both sides of the home have been evacuated.

  Holey holy crap.  You wouldn't know which direction to go.

[guest49]

Sounds like a real life replay of a horror movie I was bored enough to watch once - A township was built on the site of a cemetary, where the developers just removed the headstones and not the caskets, to save money

[ssweetpea]

There are sinkholes in Waihi that have swallowed garages and parts of houses but fortunately no people.

[Magoo]

Perhaps we should be all walking about with probes at the ready.       This isn't a stupid idea for people living in Christchurch.

[Lovelee]

There is an edge of the river through Bundaberg that the people are calling a sinkhole ... seems more like the edge washed away in that flood.

The Gold coast has lost 4m of sand and the tallllllllll skyscapers have suddenly found themselves closer to the edge of the Tasman. 

There are heaps of sinkholes appearing all over the world .....

And in OZ .. they scoop up sand and shift it from there to here .. and back again .. to keep the million dollar views worth the look!

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Perhaps we should be all walking about with probes at the ready.       This isn't a stupid idea for people living in Christchurch.

Walking across a glacier nevé by yourself is a foolish thing to do.

Often you get a thin veneer of snow that won't support your weight across deep crevasses, which is why it is advisable to cross in pairs, roped up for glacier travel.

[guest49]

Apparently if you happen to be in the Hawkes Bay hospital in any quake over about 7 .1 [from memory] you stand a pretty good chance of seeing the ground-level travelling up past the windows, as the ground liquefies

[Magoo]

Apparently if you happen to be in the Hawkes Bay hospital in any quake over about 7 .1 [from memory] you stand a pretty good chance of seeing the ground-level travelling up past the windows, as the ground liquefies

Thanks for that.  It isn't on my bucket list. 

[nitpicker1]

slideshow

Memorable Florida Sinkholes (PHOTOS)

Published: Mar 1, 2013, 2:43 PM EST

http://www.weather.com/news/florida-sinkhole-photos-20130301

saw a map of USofA on the news tonight, with a dotted areas of sinkhole occurance. One of my gkids, her husband and my g-grands are in Pennsylvania, so I searched for more info


Sinkholes
...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. ...

... Sinkholes can be human-induced

New sinkholes have been correlated to land-use practices, especially from ground-water pumping and from construction and development practices. Sinkholes can also form when natural water-drainage patterns are changed and new water-diversion systems are developed. Some sinkholes form when the land surface is changed, such as when industrial and runoff-storage ponds are created. The substantial weight of the new material can trigger an underground collapse of supporting material, thus causing a sinkhole.

The overburden sediments that cover buried cavities in the aquifer systems are delicately balanced by ground-water fluid pressure. The water below ground is actually helping to keep the surface soil in place. Ground-water pumping for urban water supply and for irrigation can produce new sinkholes In sinkhole-prone areas. If pumping results in a lowering of ground-water levels, then underground structural failure, and thus, sinkholes, can occur. ...

http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/sinkholes.html



  Ground-water pumping for urban water supply and for irrigation can produce new sinkholes in sinkhole-prone areas. If pumping results in a lowering of ground-water levels, then underground structural failure, and thus, sinkholes, can occur. ...

UMMMMMmmmmm  

[Lovelee]

There is a bad one in Louisiana too Nitsy ... I have posted a few articles in the thread about it ... apparetnly caused by salt being removed from caverns under the ground there

[guest49]

Why do sink holes form?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21600410

[donquixotenz]

they used to and probably still do have a few around huntly......especially once they started long wall mining. Not sure what current situation is though.

[Lovelee]

this is the latest from the Louisiana one, no one has died so its not mainstream news.

[guest49]

Another one opens adjacent the one that swallowed the man... clicky thing

[nitpicker1]

tnx4t@  2, yak.' llee, donq = Interesting subject.

There is an abandoned previously unknown coal mineshaft - running, so we were told, 2 MILES out to sea - at Brighton, Ocean View, 20 minutes up the road from here, where a house fell in and several others were condemned.

Apparently the coast and farmland south of here have quite a few old shafts and open cast pits.

We followed a underground stream runner caused by a rotted root to a 2 metres hole on one of our own properties here, filled the hole and diverted the wee stream into a trackside ditch.

I have often wondered how many more dead roots channel water that starts slips and subsidences where once-forested land is in cultivation

[Lovelee]

bloody yung'uns and their text speak

tnx4t@  2

What da fuq does that say?