A giant sinkhole in a small Texas town has suddenly increased in size after 15 years of no activity, according to news reports from ABC13 Houston.
The sinkhole, located in Daisetta in Liberty County, first opened in 2008 and measured about 20 feet in diameter. Overnight, the hole grew into a 900-foot diameter crater some 260 feet deep, devouring cars, trees, utility poles, oil tanks, and other structures as it collapsed.
Since then, the surrounding ground had remained stable — until Sunday. At about 6 p.m., a neighbor notified city officials that the hole was collapsing again.
The local county’s Assistant Fire Marshal Erskin Holcomb estimated that the sinkhole has now increased by about 150 feet in width and 150 feet in depth, per ABC 13.
Tim Priessler, a neighbor who lives nearby, said he heard loud popping noises and saw cracks in the ground. He and other neighbors watched as buildings collapsed into the sinkhole. Some tanks and buildings near the edge of the hole appeared to be leaning and in danger of being swallowed by the crater.
Local officials are monitoring the situation and will provide updates and warnings to the community as needed. However, Holcomb said there is not much that can be done to remedy the problem, as it is simply an act of nature.
The crater is located on the edge of the DeLoach Oil and Gas Waste Well just west of FM 770. The owner of the property is reportedly working with an environmental specialist to determine what should be done with five plastic tanks containing sodium silicate, which may be in danger of falling into the sinkhole, according to ABC13.
“It is on private property where it’s taken place right now, and we’ve notified the people that live right there, and a geologist is coming out today to look and see if he can give us some insight to it,” Mayor Eric Thaxton’s office told The Dallas Express.
The unpredictability of the sinkhole has left surrounding neighbors on edge.
“I was having a lot of trouble going to sleep last night because I didn’t know if we were going to get swallowed up. My family told me it happened kind of fast before,” Jordana Priessler told ABC 13.
“We just never thought it would start again,” said Linda Hoover, who lives right next to the sinkhole, per ABC 13. “When we bought our house a few years ago, we were under the understanding that it was stabilized.”
She added that she and her family are prepared to leave in a hurry if that becomes necessary.
The entire city of Daisetta is situated on a salt dome, which could be a factor contributing to the sinkhole. In 2012, the entire community of Bayou Corne, Louisiana, which was built near a salt dome, had to be evacuated when a one-acre sinkhole opened up. The hole has since grown to span 34 acres.
“Water glass” aka sodium silicate.
(article mentions the 5 tanks containing it)
Decades ago I bought a jar of liquid “water glass” from the shelves of an old-type independent pharmacy in McKinney.
[It helps to shield plaster casts with a glass like clear surface. Just paint it on.]
As a hobby, I was sculpting/blowing glass at home. So, I had an interest in glass (silica substances).
My young son had fun painting a big red stick with the water glass. The red stick looked like it had baked-on glass covering it.
While I’m no car mechanic, evidently people would visit the drug store to get a jar of water glass to help patch a radiator or engine.
My degree line is Environmental Sciences / Bio-Chem Toxicology.
In water treatment, sodium silicate is sometimes used because it can help remove other minerals and substances from water.
It is an amazing sight to visit a city’s drinking water treatment plant and watch waterfalls of the brown, murky source lake water get hit with a flocculants (like alum) and turn up crystal clear.
Silica, in itself, is very interesting with many wildly varied properties.
Our bodies need the bio-available silicas for health.
Dr. Chris Exley posits that mineral waters (e.g. Fiji) or foods that are high in silica content can help detox aluminum from the body.
This makes common sense from a ‘mechanical’ perspective.
For example: FLUORIDE and LEAD and ALUMINUM
Dallas Water Utilities adds hydrofluosilicic acid to the water. The molecule has 6 fluorine atoms and one silica atom.
The silica aspect of hydrofluosilicic acid can easily interact with lead and aluminum…and help carry lead or aluminum past the blood brain barrier.
Because of a genetic allele expression, people of color (e.g. Blacks and Hispanics) are more prone to the health damage from the lead-silica-fluoride connection than Caucasians.
At DallasForSaferWater, you can see maps of Dallas with areas which have suffered from lead in the water.
The hydrofluosilicic acid erodes pipes and helps to pull out any lead so you can drink the lead in the tap water.
In that part of Texas and southern Louisiana there are huge salt caverns underground.
Natural gas and oil are stored in some of these caverns.
The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) is located in the region.
Unfortunately, Biden sold off a huge amount of the SPR and our oil reserves are the lowest since 1984.
If there were to be an international crisis or war, I believe that we would only have a few months of oil supply from the reserves.
Yup, Let’s go Brandon! Yeah, yeah, he’s our man. If he can’t screw up a country, no one can!
tell us you don’t know a damn thing about US oil production and the SPR without telling us you don’t know a damn thing about US oil production and the SPR. clown
I seriously regret that this sinkhole didn’t develop under Dallas City Hall. Can we move it?