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Florida Sinkhole Highlights State's Geologic Instability
An anonymous reader writes "Last Thursday night, a sinkhole took the life of a man (TV news video, with ad) while he slept in his home in Seffner FL, near Tampa. While human fatalies are rare, sinkholes are so common in Florida that the insurance industry successfully lobbied the state lawmakers to pass legislation in 2011 making it more difficult for homeowners to claim sinkhole damages. The bedrock in Florida is limestone, a weakly soluble mineral formed from calcified deposits of sea creatures tens of millions of years ago. Above the limestone is a clay layer called the Hawthorn Formation which shields the limestone from ground water; and above the clay is sand. However, the protective clay layer is thin or nonexistent in some areas of Florida, particularly in the middle part of the state near the Gulf coast, where caves and sinkholes are common. Geologists say that human activity, particularly construction and irrigation, can trigger sinkholes by destabilizing the landscape above caverns by drawing down water tables and massing structures above them."
it was a great idea to start building homes on swamp land?
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
What's the tech angle to this story? It's a sinkhole. Ground cover collapse is not a Slashdot story.
Oh, I don't know.. Geology? Engineering? Perhaps involving technology to detect and prevent these things?
Something like this perhaps?
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
Smart of the insurance industry to make themselves useless. Now, if they never fork out, why should I have an insurance?
Because the bank requires that you pay for insurance as part of the mortgage.
Because the state requires that you pay for insurance to drive legally.
The insurances companies have been tremendously smart. Securing mandates that you pay more and more for their products, acquiring guarantees of profits, all while reducing their liability and payouts.
Given the stuff in coal ash, I don't think I want it pumped into places in contact with groundwater that people drink.