Why Sinkholes Exist and Related Scary Phenomena underneath the Earth

Imagine the Earth full of sinkholes. It’s just like a human face full of pimples. You can be eaten alive by these sinkholes but you can still prick your pimples or big-ripen acne in front of the mirror. I’m sure most of us, hubbers are afraid of drowning into a nightmarish kind of abyss; so dark that your scream will just reverberate into thin air and the sound of death meet you suddenly after the long fall into these scary holes. By its description, it already gives me a scare; much more if I experience it real.

More and more scary reports are broadcasted and televised all over the world; the most recent was the biggest sinkhole in Guatemala. In Canada and the United States of America, similar incidents happened in the past decades. Even in Australia, there’s a very old sinkhole that became a tourist attraction due to its amazing flora and fauna. Reported sinkholes in the Philippines are considered tourist attraction because it became underground caves, especially in Bohol and Cebu. The scary hole reported from China brought chills and terror to the residents just recently.

Now, that the rainy season is already bringing typhoons in the Pacific, more and more sinkholes, landslides and similar occurrences will appear due to the heavy rains.

What happened in Guatemala and China, earlier this year are the results of diverting underground water sources and development happening in the two countries. Geologists feared that the continuous development will increase the “sinkhole phenomenon” and other related formations underneath the planet. There will come a time, that living on land will be dangerous to all inhabitants.

Here’s a very scary event that happened to the life of a noted geologist while inspecting the Dead Sea Shore last year, 23rd of June 2009..

Geologist Eli Raz was peering to a hole when abruptly, he was sucked down by a sinkhole. He was recovered after 14 hours of search and rescue. He was unhurt but one tourist suffered the same fate but seriously injured when discovered by the authorities..

Dr. Raz said that it dramatically affected the tourism industry in Israel because of more than 3, 000 sinkholes along the coast of Dead Sea that can harm visiting tourists from other countries.

Even they put signboards prohibiting tourists about the possible dangers in the area, sinkholes, without detection can open up the Earth automatically, without a sound (like thunder) and suck up everything in the area; leaving it open like an earthquake zone. Whew!!!

From then on, Dr. Raz is now heading a group of geologists to conduct surveys and collect data on the existence of sinkholes in the area of Dead Sea. The lowest part on Earth is now a very dangerous place to be with because of these discoveries.

As for me, being adventurous by nature, I would like to include Dead Sea in my itinerary and experience suprises, like sinkholes. Although, it's much difficult to be trapped in a quicksand, but falling abruptly in a deep hole or crevice is equally dangerous, too. The suspense will be on the latter, because you don't know what you're stepping  into. It can be a sinkhole!

Now that sinkhole news continue to flood other blog sites, networking sites, and of course, YouTube, I'm beginning to develop a phobia whenever I step into the soil. There are many what 'ifs' clouding my mind. What if I suddenly experience it here in my place, here in the barrio? Continuous raining can open up sinkholes, right?

Really, I'm being neurotic about this phenomena. I'm starting to be SINKHOLE-PHOBIC!!!

Have you seen the B-movie series Tremors? The sinkholes in the movie were created by giant mutant earthworms.

Here's the real find as to why these phenomena exist. Sinkholes are large open holes (the largest is as much as 30 m in diameter and 15 m in deep) that result from the earth simply collapsing.

What happened in Dead Sea shorelines was there are lots of sinkholes created in the area for the past decades. Sinkholes were formed due to the drastic changes in the vicinity...infrastructure development and rerouting of water sources.

But, hey! There's a possible solution to avoid these scary and deadly sinkholes. The Geophysical Institute of Israel studied the most possible way to detect the occurence of sinkholes. The magnetic method in geophysics applications (seismic, geoelectric and microgravity) can predict the existence of sinkholes.

Meanwhile in Italy, similar projects on the investigation of sinkhole phenomena are being conducted in the whole country.  The Department of Land Defense on Geological Service (DLDGS) launched Sinkhole Project to conduct researches and studies on the water cavities and paleontological evidences of this sinkhole phenomena.

More and more data are collected and verified by state of the art equipment in order to give accurate interpretation of land areas being studied.