What Is A Sinkhole And Why Do Sinkholes Form?

Sinkholes are scary. Thanks for the graphic, SE!

Nice graphics, I would not want to be driving along and have one open up under me.

And what is the best method of detecting them, and what can you do if there is one under your house?

Shouldn't be a problem. I think the government banned them. We're safe now.

Could fracking cause sink holes? This is a genuine question with all the discussions regarding gas production from fracking.

My understanding of fracking suggests not. This is due to the fact that a fluid has to be injected INTO the stratum to "frack" the rock. Then the gas that is liberated is piped off. This would, of necessity, leave the injected fluid in the rock stratum, and since the sink-holes that make the news for speed and ferocity are those caused by a subsidence due to LOSS of underlying fluids, it doesn't seem that fracking could be a cause, or ever materially contribute.

Of course, someone in Hydrology, or Geology, or the Mine Engineering field might be able to shed a lot more light, and correct me.

Any takers? Please?

Sinkholes are a surface strata collapse event. Typically rather shallow in geologic terms being they tend to only be at most 10's to a few hundred feet deep.

Fracking on the other hand happens in strata that are found thousands to tens of thousands of feet deeper. Plus fracking is not a large displacement event in the strata that is being done in. Rather its just putting millions of tiny cracks in the formations and only moving the associated strata fractions of an inch at most but over a large space of many hundreds of acres in area.

Also fracking is introducing material to the formations not removing it.

I did see some scare mongering comments about what happens when a fracking well has a failure close to the surface. That could cause some localized surface problems but since most (not all) oil wells are away from populated areas it shouldn't be a residential problem.

Drew K