What is a submarine sinkhole?

A blue hole is a large marine cavern or sinkhole, which is open to the surface and has developed in a bank or island composed of a carbonate bedrock (limestone or coral reef). They extend below sea level for most of their depth and may provide access to submerged cave passages.

What are the 4 types of sinkholes?

There are basically four (4) different types of sinkholes in Florida.

• Collapse sinkholes. This occurs in areas where there is extensive cover materials over a limestone layer.
• Solution Sinkholes.
• Alluvial Sinkholes.
• Raveling sinkholes.

What are the 3 types of sinkholes?

The three major types of sinkholes know to us are : Solution, Cover Collapse and Cover Subsidence. Solution sinkholes are most commonly seen in areas that have a very thin cover of soil on the surface, exposing the bedrock below to continual erosion by water.

What are underwater sinkholes called?

A cenote is a type of sinkhole that exposes groundwater underneath. A sink or stream sink are more general terms for sites that drain surface water, possibly by infiltration into sediment or crumbled rock.

What is the most destructive sinkhole?

1. Qattara Depression. The vast Qattara west of Cairo, Egypt is the largest natural sinkhole in the world, measuring 80km long by 120km wide. This dangerous, sludge-filled quicksand pit is unearthly in its appearance and shocking in its size.

Can humans cause sinkholes?

Human activity can create sinkholes, too, for example, via collapsed or broken sewer and drain pipes or broken septic tanks, improperly compacted soil after excavation work, and buried trash, logs and other debris. They can also occur from the overpumping and extraction of groundwater and subsurface fluids.

What is a famous sinkhole?

Often called the world’s largest sinkhole, not for its depth but its insane area, the Qattara Depression covers about 7,500 square miles of the desert in western Egypt. The average depth is about 200 feet, but its lowest point reaches 436 feet.

What’s at the bottom of the Big blue hole?

The culprit was a thick layer of toxic hydrogen sulfide spanning the width of the entire sinkhole like a floating blanket. Erika Bergman: Underneath that there’s no oxygen, no life, and down there we found conchs and conch shells and hermit crabs that had fallen into the hole and suffocated, really.