by At the northeastern tip of the Brazilian Amazon, the houses on the edge change huge demarcation, which are suddenly opened in the ground. The massive dolines assumed a thousand people from whom the risk is exposed to losing their houses and prompted the state government to declare an emergency.
Such dolins have occurred in cities around the world, including the United States, Turkey and Iran. You can suddenly appear and represent threats for life and houses.
What are dolines exactly?
Dolines are depression in the ground that are formed when water undermines the floor. Of course, this can happen if the precipitation drips through the floor and the underlying basic rock dissolves. However, it can also be the result of leaky underground water pipes, fracking for fossil fuels and mining activities.
Dolines are more likely to appear in regions with “Karst Terrain” – areas of soluble basic rock such as limestone, salt beds or plaster – which can be dissolved by groundwater, said Hong Yang, professor of environmental sciences at the British University of Reading. Yang has recently published investigations into the mitigating risk of sinkhole, which have been reinforced by climate change.
“Around 20% of the country are susceptible in the United States, since Florida, Texas, Alabama, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee and Pennsylvania experience the most important damage”he told DW. Other hotspots are Great Britain, especially areas such as Ripon and the Yorkshire Dales in Northern England, the Italian Lazio region, the Mexican Peninsula Yucatan, parts of China, Iran and Türkiye.
What role does climate change play?
Climate change increases the frequency of dolines by intensifying extreme weather events according to research.
“Dürren lower the water table and remove the underground support for the country above. If they are followed by intensive storms or heavy rain – which are becoming increasingly common due to climate change – the sudden weight and saturation of the water can cause the weakened soil to collapse”said Yang.
He pointed to the bread basket of Türkiye, the Konya level in Central Anatolia. It is a karst area in which drought increasingly means that more dolines are now opening up in populated regions.
Before the 2000s, researchers in the region registered a sinkhole every few years, said Fetullah Arik, professor at Konya Technical University, who heads the university’s Sinkhole Research Center. They documented 42 in 2024 alone.
In recent years, the Konya level of Türkiye has appeared much more oftenAbdullah Coskun/Anadolu Agency/Bild Allianz
The groundwater levels in the entire Konya pool decreased by at least 60 meters compared to 1970.
“The groundwater cannot be found in some areas near the pelvic edges, although the drill holes are drilled deeper than 300 meters”he added.
Drought associated with climate change lowers the groundwater level because the precipitation does not replenish water sources. But because people still need access to water, they pump a lot of it, which in turn tightens the risk of dolines. In populated areas, this also means that buildings are more susceptible to collapse.
“If you pull water out of a juice box too quickly, the sides hang in”said Antonios E. Marsllos, Associate Professor of Geology, Environment and Sustainability at Hofstra University in the state of New York. “
Marsllos, who published research on the effects of climate change on sinkhole formations,
Said that in large cities with air pollution in which water becomes more acidic, it worsens and the rock breaks off faster.
Marsllos and his team dealt over a period of almost 80 years in Long Island, New York, Long Island, New York, and found that increased temperatures weakened the stability of the soil due to climate change and have a direct influence on the sinkhole formations.
Can we prevent dolines?
Experts rely on technologies such as satellite remote exploration and ground penetration radar to recognize subtle floor absence and underground cavities in order to recognize Sinkholes before collapsing, said Yang. Other identification methods include monitoring the groundwater level and the implementation of geotechnical surveys before they are built in the region.
Dolines like this in the Mexican state of Puebla can swallow large areasJosé Castañares/AFP
When an empty emptiness is found underground, experts behave like a dentist, said Marsellos.
“It is exactly the same thing we do – we check whether there is a cavity, basically an empty space under the floor, which will not be able to keep this empty space at some point.”
Depending on the local conditions such as the composition of the rocks and the tectonic activity, the cavity could then be filled with cement, he said, for example.
In the Konya Basin region in Turkey, in which over 80% of the water consumed by agriculture, AKIR is the most important factor to regulate excessive groundwater use so that the soil has this natural stabilizer underneath. The farmers have now switched to more efficient irrigation techniques.
The region has also tried a number of water transmission projects, such as the Blue Tunnel project that takes water from the Goksu River to fill the Konya level.
Other prevention strategies include control of the drainage and the removal of leaks and the enforcement of strict building regulations, said Yang. “Engineering solutions can stabilize the soil by injecting groovy mortar to fill cavities, compact loose soil or use the geogrid technology to strengthen the country.”
Published by: Jennifer Collins
