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| United States Geological Survey |
Fear is an unpleasant emotion that every person
experiences in a different manner. However, fear is relative to a person. What
might frighten one person it might not the other. Natural disasters such as
tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, storm, and sinkholes, can be considered a source
of fear for many. To avoid the possibilities of such natural disasters people,
seek to reside as far as possible from such events. This blog post will address the
reason why Florida would be a poor choice for real estate investment based on
the high possibility of sinkholes and other natural disasters that might go in conjunction
with sinkholes.
While sinkholes can be a very intriguing phenomenon, they can also be a scary event. Imagine the surface collapsing and there is no telling how far is going to collapse or when it will happen. Because sinkholes are a depression in the ground that can occur suddenly or gradually, it is hard to predict when such event will occur. This is one of the facts that makes this phenomenon more dangerous than others. Other natural disasters such as storm, hurricanes, and even tsunamis might have warnings that could help the population prevent potential hazards; however, sinkholes do not.
Sinkhole formed in Guatemala City. According to National Geographic (2007), the sinkhole was 300-foot-deep. The hole swallowed approximately twelve homes and killed three in the process. The poor maintenance of sewage lines and rain fall might have been the causes or what aided the formation of this sinkhole.
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| National Geographic |
Sinkholes are more common in karst terrain, which are regions where the type of rock underneath the land surface can naturally be dissolved by groundwater going through it. The rocks that are more soluble are gypsum, limestone, carbonate rock, and salt bed domes. Florida is one of the states that its underground is composed mostly of the previously mentioned rocks, making it more susceptible to sinkholes.
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| USGS / Carbonate Rocks Map |
According to U.S. Climate Data
(2017), Florida is susceptible to rain during the whole year with
a minimum average precipitation of 3.07 inches per month to a high 7.72 inches in one month. This water flowing through the surface into the underground can exponentially increase the formation process of sinkholes.
The United States is underlain by a soluble rock in about 18 percent of its territory (Weary, Doctor, 2014, p. 21). The state of Florida is one of the states more susceptible to sinkholes. In addition, Florida is prone to floods, and hurricanes. According to the United States Geological Survey (2016), over the last 15 years, sinkholes have caused damages of an average of $ 300 million per year.
Florida, Louisiana, Michigan and a great part of Texas contain evaporite rocks as much as 7,000 feet below the land surface. In addition, Florida is also one of the states that contain insoluble sediments of carbonate rocks at the surface level to up to 300 feet beneath the surface.
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| Weary and Doctor 2014 - USGS The pink area is buried evaporite rock as much 7,000 feet below the land surface. |
The several conditions of Florida make the state highly susceptible to sinkholes. The state in susceptible to floods, hurricanes, rain during the whole year. Being susceptible to constant water flow in combination with the ground being formed of carbonate rocks and evaporite basin generates the perfect condition for the formation of sinkholes. So, if you are afraid of sinkholes Don’t buy Florida!
