Bayou Corne sinkhole to be featured on NOVA

The sinkhole at Bayou Corne will be featured in a scientific look at what causes sinkholes and the destruction they can bring when “Sinkholes – Buried Alive” premieres on NOVA and Louisiana Public Broadcasting at 9 p.m. Wednesday.
Bayou Corne residents were evacuated in August 2012 after a sinkhole developed on a Texas Brine site forcing the evacuation of the homes in the area. The one-acre sinkhole has now expanded to 31 acres.
This is just one of the stories covered in the program. In Tampa, Florida, in 2013, a giant hole opened up under the bedroom floor of Jeffrey Bush, swallowing the 36-year-old as he slept. His body was never found.
Sinkholes are formed wherever limestone and other water-soluble rocks underpin the soil. When carbon dioxide in the air dissolves in rainwater, it forms a weak acid that attacks the soft rocks, riddling them with holes like Swiss cheese. Sinkholes can occur gradually when the surface subsides into bowl-shaped depressions or suddenly, when the ground gives way — often catastrophically.
Sinkholes have swallowed highways, apartment buildings, horses, camels, even golfers, with monster-size holes cracking the earth from Siberia to Louisiana. With compelling eyewitness video of dramatic collapses, and following scientists as they explore the underlying forces behind these natural disasters, NOVA travels the globe to investigate what it’s like to have your world vanish beneath your feet.