So what's happening here? Is this from fracking? Or could it be global warming putting more water in the oceans and affecting lowlands?
The rate sinkholes forming in Florida isn't rising. They just make the news more often, as more area is now covered by structures. Before the buildup, when the sinkholes would open up in the forest or swamp, nobody noticed. Florida gets a disproportionate number of them because basically the whole state is limestone, and limestone slowly dissolves.
And, as the water table rises, the potential for sink holes increase. It doesn’t matter if it’s disolving limestone which requires water or increases erosion which requires water too. To say that all sink holes are caused by the erosion of limestone without actually verifying it is a stretch. It doesn’t take a genius to come to the conclusion that the water level in Fla. is rising. NASA has a big investment in Cape Canaveral and has been tracking the level for decades to plan long term measures to secure the site. Tax payers would get pretty upset if a multi billion dollar project “fell over” in a sink hole because the govt. didn’t plan ahead. It might PO a lot of citizens who suddenly lost their cell phone service. NASA plays a big role in satillite communications service for civilian use. Yes, Climate Change affects everything, and everyone.
The water table in Florida is only rising at the coastline, while sinkholes happen all over. In most areas of Florida, the groundwater level is falling, due to humans pumping it out. That groundwater depletion can cause sinkholes, as the empty space where the water used to be collapses. And bad construction by humans can do it, things like leaking water mains or poor drainage. However, in the majority of the cases, it's kind of a natural thing.
It has nothing to do with rising water tables. Ocala isn't anywhere near the coast. There is a path of where sink holes in Florida occur that is as old as Florida itself. Along this path there are sinkholes everywhere and constantly opening up. However, most are quite small only a foot or two around and a foot or 2 deep. Those are constantly happening. The danger comes with they occur deeper, but the ground above it holds firm. Over time it grows in size until finally it becomes too large. We live along that path and constantly are filling small sink holes on our property. Small ones are everywhere. Others open up to size of a pond - large or small. In addition, the water table in the area of Ocala and here is not rising, it is falling, due to increasing usage of wells both for urban water and irrigation. It has absolutely NOTHING to do with climate change.whatsoever. Anyone who knows anything about sinkholes knows that.
If something isn't done about climate change, there is a danger that someday there might be an earthquake in California and tornadoes in Kansas!!!
