Sinkhole in Germany

Last week residents in the German town of Schmalkalden awoke to a giant sinkhole in their neighborhood.  Twenty three nearby homes were quickly evactuated for fear of the 20 meter wide 40 meter long sinkhole getting bigger.  As you can see in the video, hours after the the sinkhole formed damage to a garage continued as walls collasped.  Luckily no one was hurt in this event but one car was taken into the hole along with a section of a road.  You can see debris in the pictures but everything is buried underneath dirt so you can only imagine what would have happened if somebody was sucked into this sinkhole.  Sinkholes are usually formed by the natural process called suffosion.  This is where groundwater dissolves the carbonate cement that holds the ground together creating a cavern underneath the ground.  At any time then the surface may collaspe.  Since this sinkhole happened on a road it leaves me to believe that the weight of the road definitly influenced how fast the sinkhole formed.  What makes a sinkhole like this one so dangerous is its location.  Ironically it was probably a good thing this sinkhole occured in the middle of the night.  If during the day there would have a been a greater chance for traffic, and if there were people driving I would assume they would have lost their lives.  Also this happened in a neighborhood.  They are lucky that it did not form underneath a house which could have demolished it in mere seconds.  







This video shows how fast a sinkhole occurs and how dangerous it can be.