23-acre body of water disappears in St. Louis suburb

[PowerMacMan]

This is really weird... I've never heard anything like it but it's on MSNBC so it's true... or it could have been a massive hoax...

Woe! Lake Begone!

 

[dopefiend]

David Taylor, a geologist who inspected the lakebed Wednesday, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the sinkhole was formed when water eroded the limestone deep underground and created pockets in the rock. The sinkhole was “like a ticking time bomb.”

Wow, thats crazy!

 

[Oirectine]

Oh, uh, sorry everybody. I was... really thirsty.

 

[Counterfit]

Oh, uh, sorry everybody. I was... really thirsty.

LOL!
Although, I wonder if this had anything to do with it:

By Wednesday, the manmade lake — normally seven to 10 feet deep in spots — had been reduced to a mucky, stinky mess.

Hmmmm

Anyways, something similar happened before. I don't remember all the detail from the case study in my Engineering by Design book, but I believe the lake was located in Louisiana, and it was quite large. Texaco was drilling some test holes to find oil that was known to be there. There also happened to be a salt mine underneath said lake. Well, someone at Texaco didn't compare their maps to that of the mine company, and they drilled right into the mine. No on died, but the mine became unusable, and it took quite a while for the lake to fill back up.

 

[wdlove]

That is a very sad situation. Being man made is probably a good part of the reason.

 

[Sun Baked]

Anyways, something similar happened before. I don't remember all the detail from the case study in my Engineering by Design book, but I believe the lake was located in Louisiana, and it was quite large. Texaco was drilling some test holes to find oil that was known to be there. There also happened to be a salt mine underneath said lake. Well, someone at Texaco didn't compare their maps to that of the mine company, and they drilled right into the mine. No on died, but the mine became unusable, and it took quite a while for the lake to fill back up.

It also was a feature in the Engineering Disasters on TLC or the Discovery Channel, quite interesting pictures/video of the land getting sucked into a hole and the water shooting back up the salt mine entrance.

 

[Makosuke]

Weird, but I guess that's what you get when you try to build your own lake.

Sounds like the increased pressure from recent rain pushed whatever was capping the crevaces under the lake past their limit, and it ended up emptying into them.

 

[Frohickey]

David Taylor, a geologist who inspected the lakebed Wednesday, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the sinkhole was formed when water eroded the limestone deep underground and created pockets in the rock. The sinkhole was “like a ticking time bomb.”

Sounds like whoever had the bright idea of putting a lake on top of a limestone area needs to be reminded that limestone can be dissolved by water.

CaCO3(solid) == limestone

CaCO3(solid <==> Ca2+(aqueous) + CO3 2-(aqueous)
CO2(aqueous) + H2O (liquid) <==> H2CO3 (aqueous)
H2CO3 (aqueous) + CO3 2-(aqueous) <==> 2 HCO3- (aqueous)

Water gets acidic when it gets CO2 in it from the atmosphere, this acidic water can then dissolve limestone.

Chemical of the Week: Carbon Dioxide

 

[King Cobra]

Link doesn't work (i.e. page won't load). I tried opening it in Mozilla, and nothing from the page loaded into my window. Then I tried it in Safari, and I got this (click on the attachment, ya lazy bums):

 

[Frohickey]

Link doesn't work (i.e. page won't load). I tried opening it in Mozilla, and nothing from the page loaded into my window. Then I tried it in Safari, and I got this (click on the attachment, ya lazy bums):

Worked for me... link

 

[King Cobra]

Worked for me... link

Mozilla - doesn't work.
Safari - doesn't work.
Internet Exploder - WTF? Now it works?! Bah, I hate I.E.

Man, it would have been cool to see the "funnel" as the lake dropped.
Anyways...oh, no. Chemistry equilibrium equations.

 

[PowerMacMan]

Well I linked it from MSN's MSNBC page... MSN=MicroSoft Network. Maybe MSN has something so it will only work with IE or MSN itself (of course). Microsoft has struck again...

 

[Sun Baked]

Mozilla - doesn't work.
Safari - doesn't work.
Internet Exploder - WTF? Now it works?! Bah, I hate I.E.

Man, it would have been cool to see the "funnel" as the lake dropped.
Anyways...oh, no. Chemistry equilibrium equations.

Funny, worked under Mozilla 1.7b for me.

 

[bousozoku]

Link doesn't work (i.e. page won't load). I tried opening it in Mozilla, and nothing from the page loaded into my window. Then I tried it in Safari, and I got this (click on the attachment, ya lazy bums):

Earlier, I was having trouble with MSNBC links and Firefox for some reason but a reload got them going.

We have sink holes far too often here. They usually attack roads and houses, never lakes. It would be bad if all the manmade lakes went awake in Floriduh since there are so many. Still, it might put the water back into the aquifer and we'd be out of our drought.

 

[absolut_mac]

That is funny, but the cost to repair it won't be!

Because the lake is private property, the subdivision’s residents will have to cover the cost of fixing it, probably through special property assessments. George English expects it to cost $1,000 a household.

Personally, I think that the $1,000 will more than make up for any loss in property value if they leave it as a mucky stinky mess!

 

[MongoTheGeek]

Personally, I think that the $1,000 will more than make up for any loss in property value if they leave it as a mucky stinky mess!

I'm sure they could just seed it and grass would grow nicely.

 

[Frohickey]

I think that they should spend the $1000 and make it with a concrete bottom. Then, do not fill it with water, but instead charge $5/hour or $20 a day for skateboarders and rollerbladers.

 

[PowerMacMan]

Or a community pool, that way they would still have water in a spot that once occupied water... A 23 acre pool!

 

[Mr. Anderson]

That's just nuts! I found one bad picture, you'd figure someone would be able to get a better shot....

D

 

[iGav]

someone had better warn backtothemac just incase it happens to his lake.

 

[sonyrules]

Whats a mess... If they do fix it, I wonder how long it would take to fill it again???

 

[King Cobra]

For some reason, now the link works in Mozilla. Damn, PowerMacMan, those are some clever bastards over at Microsoft!

If they do fix it, I wonder how long it would take to fill it again???

Period, not a question mark (or three).

I wouldn't be worried about how long it'll take to fill it. The big issues are cost (as referenced before) and the productivity of filling the "hole" on our economy. I estimate that the 23-acre lake averaging 4 feet deep can hold about 30 million gallons of water. Given that Poland Springs ships their gallons of water at 85c/gallon, then awards a 10% additional sale, you're talking about $23 million in filling that thing up. And those 52 foot semi-s can hold no more than 7000 gallons of water each, given that each one was sealed off like an aquarium. So you're talking about over 4000 trucks going to the site to fill that thing up. That's very time consuming and (can be debated) not a productive use of our resources.

 

[Frohickey]

I wouldn't be worried about how long it'll take to fill it. The big issues are cost (as referenced before) and the productivity of filling the "hole" on our economy. I estimate that the 23-acre lake averaging 4 feet deep can hold about 30 million gallons of water. Given that Poland Springs ships their gallons of water at 85c/gallon, then awards a 10% additional sale, you're talking about $23 million in filling that thing up. And those 52 foot semi-s can hold no more than 7000 gallons of water each, given that each one was sealed off like an aquarium. So you're talking about over 4000 trucks going to the site to fill that thing up. That's very time consuming and (can be debated) not a productive use of our resources.

I have a few questions.

Are you part of the homeowners that live around this 23 acre lake?
If you are not, why is it 'our' resources, and 'our' economy?

 

[Mr. Anderson]

That's very time consuming and (can be debated) not a productive use of our resources.

They must have had one of your Vacuums of Infinite Density working there.

As for productive use of resources - you plug the hole, rain will eventually fill it up again. Maybe not by the end of the year, but I'll bet by next year its fine. There won't be any water trucks showing up....

And since its a manmade lake in the first place, its been done before.

D

 

[King Cobra]

Are you part of the homeowners that live around this 23 acre lake?
If you are not, why is it 'our' resources, and 'our' economy?

Because in order to deliver all that water, you would need lots of trucks to bring lots of water over, and all that water could be used for other purposes, like preparing an aquarium in New York to attract people in ordert o bring in money, etc. Point is: Don't bring trucks to the lake...let the lake stay dry to save the cost of filling it up. Not to mention, Mr. A claimed that "There won't be any water trucks showing up...."

They must have had one of your Vacuums of Infinite Density working there.

There is no "Vacuum of Infinite Density" going on. Instead, that was your annoying cocky attitude and a reference to an inside joke that has no application here. I said that the time and cost of filling up the lake again via trucks would not be a productive use of our economical resources, and I feel that I have showed that further with the example of the NY aquarium (above in this post). Thus, I feel that I have demonstrated that refilling the lake up with trucks is not a great solution to replace 30 million gallons of water. What Mr. A suggested (let rain fill it up) would work (eventually); however, my focus was on how to fill up the lake quickly, as in, much quicker than it takes mother nature to fill it up again.

My overall point is: I don't see a quick fix to filling up the lake after it's been fixed. But I also don't see how the Draino-carrying plumbers in the area are going to get the quick buck anymore.