Sinkhole clusters after heavy rainstorms

Abstract

Sinkholes are the most common geological hazard in karst terrains. Generally triggered by rainstorms or by changes in the hydrological/hydrogeological regime, they display a wide range of morphologies and sizes. Typically, the main difficulty in evaluating the sinkhole hazard is represented by the collection of reliable data about time of occurrence of the events, which is a mandatory requirement for the estimation of the hazard. In this paper, we document a dozen sinkholes triggered by a heavy rainstorm that occurred during the first week of September 2014 in the Gargano Promontory of Apulia (southeastern Italy). Following a description of the rainstorm, two clusters of sinkholes are described, starting with the identification of the sinkhole type and of the main morphometric characteristics. Even though it is very likely that the documented sinkholes are only a fraction of those caused by the September 2014 rainstorm, this documentation provides insights for the collection of important sinkhole data produced by a specific, triggering storm. introduction Sinkholes (or dolines) are closed depressions with internal drainage, widely regarded as one of the main diagnostic landforms of epigenic karst (Ford and Williams, 2007; Palmer, 2007; Gutiérrez, 2010; De Waele et al., 2011). Sinkholes display a wide range of morphologies (cylindrical, conical, bowl-or pan-shaped), varying in size up to hundreds of meters across and typically from a few to tens of meters deep (Gutiérrez et al., 2008, 2014). The origin of a sinkhole can be natural, if related to the presence of soluble rocks, or anthropogenic. In this latter case, anthropogenic sinkholes indicate a connection to a man-made underground cavity (

Relict drainage effects on distribution and morphometry of karst depressions: a casestudy from central Taurus (Turkey)

“…teau surface (outside of relict valleys) are investigated. Topographic maps (UTM zone 36), 1:25,000-scale, produced by The General Command of Mapping (Turkey), were used to determine the distribution of karst depressions, relict and non-relict valleys on the plateau (Day, 1983;Denizman, 2003;Applegate, 2003;Angel et al, 2004;Florea, 2005;Faivre and Pahernik, 2007;Telbisz et al, 2009;Benac et al, 2013;Bočić et al, 2015;Keskin and Yılmaz, 2016;Iovine et al, 2016;Margiotta et al, 2016;Parise et al, 2018). The uppermost, closed-contour lines of karst depressions on topographic maps (classical method) were delineated as polygons in a GIS, and basic morphometric properties (area, perimeter, long axis, short axis, elongation ratio and circularity index) were calculated.…”

Experimental assessment of the relationship between rainfall intensity and sinkholes caused by damaged sewer pipes

“…Major social and economic issues have ensued owing to the resulting structural problems, such as the collapse of buildings and road erosion (Gal-loway et al, 1999;Waltham et al, 2005;Gutierrez et al, 2008;Kuwano et al, 2010a;Oosthuizen and Richardson, 2011;Beck et al, 2012;Guarino and Nisio, 2012;Yokota et al, 2012;Gao et al, 2013;Intrieri et al, 2015;Bae et al, 2016;Parise, 2019). In general, sinkholes can be classified into two types: (1) natural sinkholes and (2) anthropogenic sinkholes (Guarino and Nisio, 2012;Gutierrez et al, 2008Gutierrez et al, , 2014Beck, 2012;Parise, 2019). Natural sinkholes occur when the underlying ground layer (e.g., karst landscape) is easily soluble in water, whereas anthropogenic sinkholes may occur also in a nonkarst environment (Parise, 2015), caused by human activity such as sewage damage, inadvertent excavation, or groundwater lowering.…”

A reactivated cave system induces rapidly developing cover-collapse sinkholes in Tasmania, Australia

“…Water under pressure may liquify clay in overburden deposits above the karst contact, thereby undercutting the ground surface until roof failure occurs (Jia et al, 2018;Soliman et al 2018). Examples of cover-collapse sinkholes forming rapidly after heavy rain have been documented in Europe (Gutiérrez-Santolalla, 2005;Martinotti et al, 2017;Noury et al, 2018;Parise et al, 2018), the US (Hyatt and Jacobs, 1996;Hunt et al, 2013), and in the Mole Creek karst of northern Tasmania (Slee et al, 2019).…”