Sinkholes are on the rise. Scientists might have a way to prevent the threat
Scientists find way to detect terrifying climate change issue before it occurs
- A Pennsylvania grandmother died last December after falling into a 30-foot sinkhole that opened into an abandoned coal mine.
- Sinkholes threaten 20 per cent of land in the United States, with their global occurrence increasing due to climate change and extreme weather.
- Researchers in Pennsylvania have developed a new method to detect sinkholes before they appear, utilising sound waves from underground fibre optic cables.
- This innovative tool, a "distributed acoustic sensing interrogator," is anticipated to be more affordable and effective than existing detection methods.
- States like Pennsylvania and Florida are highly vulnerable to sinkholes due to underlying soluble rock, with these geological events costing the US at least $300 million annually.