Sinkhole clusters after heavy rainstorms

[摘要] Sinkholes are the most common geological hazard in karst terrains. Generally triggered by rainstorms or by changesin the hydrological/hydrogeological regime, they display a wide range of morphologies and sizes. Typically, the maindifficulty in evaluating the sinkhole hazard is represented by the collection of reliable data about time of occurrence ofthe events, which is a mandatory requirement for the estimation of the hazard. In this paper, we document a dozen sinkholestriggered by a heavy rainstorm that occurred during the first week of September 2014 in the Gargano Promontoryof Apulia (southeastern Italy). Following a description of the rainstorm, two clusters of sinkholes are described, startingwith the identification of the sinkhole type and of the main morphometric characteristics. Even though it is very likely thatthe documented sinkholes are only a fraction of those caused by the September 2014 rainstorm, this documentationprovides insights for the collection of important sinkhole data produced by a specific, triggering storm.

[学科分类] 地质学