Thursday, May 08, 2008

The Daisetta Sinkhole - They Make 'Em Bigger in Texas!

Texas is known for doing everything in a big way, and a big sinkhole near Daisetta is living up to that reputation. The sinkhole has been getting bigger by the day, swallowing up earth and anything on it (tractors, trees, whatever) and is now estimated to be 600 yards across (who wants to get close enough to measure it?)

The Sinkhole That Ate Texas is near Daisetta, northeast of Houston, and contains a mix of oil and fuel sludge. Sinkholes usually result from underground limestone that gets washed away by water under the earth, but the Daisetta sinkhole is said to be caused by a dissolving salt dome in an area where oil was pumped out of the ground.

An article says that the edge of the crater is now just 75 yard from one house, and may end up swallowing part of a highway as well. As the first sentence of the article says, "There's not much to do but pull up lawn chairs and watch."

2 comments:

Texas Truth said...

I went out there today. The local police had every road near the sinkhole blocked off.

It was interetsing to talk to the poeple maning the roadblock. They were very kind and information.

Visit my blog for further information. Thanks for posting about the sinkhole

Dave B said...

Thanks for the comment... good to hear from someone who's seen it. I hope the sinkhole doesn't grow any bigger. At least it's good that no one has been injured by this thing.