Water Sinks

If you have seen the National news anytime lately you probably have seen the historical flooding that is occurring in Western Kentucky and Southern Illinois.  The worst flood that was in this area was the Flood of 1937, it was the flood to top all floods.  This flood of 2011 is predicted to match the 1937 one.

All major highways but one are closed as of today, the Tradewater has Hwy. 60 East closed, the Ohio and Cumberland has Hwy. 60 West closed, and the Ohio has Hwy. 91 north closed.  The only exit is Hwy. 641South/91 that goes to Fredonia and Princeton.  We will have another weather disaster to document in our journals for Crittenden County history.

A couple of days last week we actually had sunshine and warm temperatures.  But all the rain causes new sights to the area that are normally not visible.

These two pictures show what looks like to be just ordinary ponds located in the pasture fields for livestock uses.  But this is deciving for these areas are usually just dry pasture land.

These two ponds were formed from all the rain that we had during the month of April.  They are known as sinks to the local farmers.

These sinks are known as "solution sinkholes," and they form as the limestone dissolves underneath the land creating sunken areas in the land surface.  The outer edges of sinkholes are normally round or oval and their bottoms are bowl shaped.  When water drains into these, it works like a funnel to feed the water into caves and underground streams below.

Years ago with the area was filled with flourspar mines, many times after flooding rains like we have had lately, the water would run from these sinks into the underground streams and flood the mines. The water filled sinks usually disappear fairly quickly after the rains stop and the undergrounds steams carry the water to other places.