Sinkholes – Buried Alive 1x53

In Tampa, Florida, in February 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.

Bushwas a victim of a sinkhole—a growing worldwide hazard that lurks 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 thesurface subsides into bowl shaped depressions; or suddenly, when the groundgives way—often catastrophically. Sinkholes have swallowed highways, apartmentbuildings, horses, camels, even golfers, with monster-size holes cracking theearth from Siberia to Louisiana. Sinkholes — Buried Alive is filled withcompelling eyewitness video of these dramatic collapses. NOVA explores the globe to investigate what it’s like to have your world vanish beneath your feet, following scientists as they explore the underlying forces behind these natural disasters.

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