Hurricane rains can open sinkholes: what happens underground before a collapse

A sinkhole can appear in seconds, even if the problem has been growing underground for years. The intense rains of a hurricane can trigger such a collapse. And so it happens.

A street may appear solid while the ground beneath it is losing support. When the heavy rains of a hurricane arrive, the water can accelerate the erosion of materials and trigger a collapse. The sinkhole appears suddenly, although the process that made it possible could have begun much earlier.

In June 2012, rains from Tropical Storm Debby caused numerous sinkholes in Florida following a long drought that reduced groundwater, and prompted the creation of a state vulnerability map.

The moment of collapse can last only a few seconds. A street cracks open, revealing a hole where vehicles once drove. Beneath that surface, however, there may have been a cavity that had been growing for a long time. Heavy rain can trigger a fault that had been developing for some time.

A void that grows beneath the surface

To understand how this happens, we need to look beneath the surface. In some regions, rocks like limestone gradually dissolve upon …….