# The earth can just open up and swallow you?! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 9, 2015, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-earth-can-just-open-up-and-swallow-you/737085 "2015-11-09T07:32:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2015, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-earth-can-just-open-up-and-swallow-you/737085/21 "2015-11-11T13:45:07Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > [There’s also this giant crack in the earth in Wyoming.](http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/11/06/how-did-i-miss-major-crack-problems-wyoming-162328) Another picture [here](http://www.forbes.com/sites/trevornace/2015/11/03/mysterious-giant-crack-wyoming/). You can see how a hill has split in the middle, the weight of the sides pulling it apart. Whole hillsides may slide down in an avalanche when the ground loses tension and can’t continue to hold itself together. Groundwater weakened the strata—once small cracks had started to form, releasing more groundwater and forming a cyclical erosion process—especially if any of it was near enough to the surface to participate in freeze-and-thaw cycles. Either weakening strata with flowing water or wedging into them with ice, it facilitates small cracks to become big fissures. But like you said, the force acting on them is gravity. It’s normal for rock to fault around the edges of mountain ranges as gravity spreads it apart horizontally. It’s unusual, given the scale of geologic time versus human time, to see it fault so suddenly without any significant seismic activity. The groundwater facilitated it opening up in this case. ---
**Author:** ![Habeed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a587f6/32.png) [@Habeed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Habeed)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2015, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-earth-can-just-open-up-and-swallow-you/737085/22 "2015-11-11T17:59:26Z")
The main thing is, in the movies, mystical forces have caused the earth to open wide. But that’s not what is happening here. The hole was there the entire time, you just couldn’t see it, and only the very thin layer of unsupported road or concrete slab, etc, is what you are actually standing on. So you didn’t get “swallowed” if you fall into one of these things, you actually just fell through the floor into a hole that was under it. ---
**Author:** ![Carryon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc29f/32.png) [@Carryon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carryon)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-earth-can-just-open-up-and-swallow-you/737085/23 "2015-11-12T13:57:36Z")
Amazing I’ve been worried about heart disease and nuclear attacks when it’s the sink holes that are the real killers 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-earth-can-just-open-up-and-swallow-you/737085/24 "2015-11-12T16:06:33Z")
You forgot meteors. Folks \*always \*forget the meteors. Sneaky devils they are. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-earth-can-just-open-up-and-swallow-you/737085/25 "2015-11-12T17:53:14Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > You forgot meteors. Folks \*always \*forget the meteors. Sneaky devils they are. Yup. And as soon as they hit you they turn into meteorites to cover their tracks. Bastards. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-earth-can-just-open-up-and-swallow-you/737085/26 "2015-11-12T18:00:52Z")
True dat! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-earth-can-just-open-up-and-swallow-you/737085/27 "2015-11-12T20:14:43Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > It’s become so popular that the museum has decided to preserve it as a permanent exhibit rather than fill it in. I was there last May, [it was filled in](http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/30/travel/corvette-museum-sinkhole/). They still have a group of cars pulled out of the hole, some restorable and some beyond repair at this time. the ones that they can save are awaiting funding. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2015, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-earth-can-just-open-up-and-swallow-you/737085/28 "2015-11-13T08:30:34Z")
There are non-cavitation causes. One is when the saturation of the soil is very high and there’s actual sizable groundwater movement —you form quicksand. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2015, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-earth-can-just-open-up-and-swallow-you/737085/29 "2015-11-13T17:13:55Z")
I blame the Graboids. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2015, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-earth-can-just-open-up-and-swallow-you/737085/30 "2015-11-15T04:59:10Z")
**Siberian Times:** [Man found dead two months after falling in sinkhole that opened up in his yard](http://siberiantimes.com/other/others/news/n0486-man-found-dead-two-months-after-falling-in-sinkhole-that-opened-up-in-his-yard/) > [@](#): > > Some locals doubted he had fallen in the gaping crevice that suddenly opened outside his back door in the town of Artyom in Primorsky region. For three weeks a local search failed to find him, and mine engineers brought in from thousands of miles away also failed initially to locate him. > > On Tuesday his body was found in the tunnels of an old mine that had collapsed causing the sinkhole. Before locating him they had to strengthen the precarious underground passageways of the old mine. > > He was located 18 metres below ground. Now wife Irina, 50, can hold a proper funeral for him. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-earth-can-just-open-up-and-swallow-you/737085.md?page=1)