ORLANDO, Fla. -- Multiple sinkholes have shown up across Central Florida recently.
- Multiple sinkholes have opened up in Central Florida
- UCF professor says he's not surprised by the number
- Sinkholes are more common after heavy rain
Spectrum News 13 spoke with a professor at the University of Central Florida who told us he’s not surprised we are seeing this many sinkholes and possible sinkholes.
Last month, a sinkhole opened up behind a townhome community in Ocala. And then this week, four sinkholes opened up in The Villages.
Central Florida has seen its fair share of wet weather.
“This is the ideal condition for sinkholes to happen,” UCF College of Engineering professor Manoj Chopra said.
Chopra has been at UCF for 25 years and has studied sinkholes.
“Any event such as the rainfall we are getting that causes water levels to change below us can accelerate the formation of these sinkholes,” he said. Continuing, “The water from the surface going in the ground it pushes down on soil and takes the soil down further and quicker through these holes causing cavities to grow.”
Eventually Chopra says the top of the cavities collapse forming the sinkholes.
Chopra says he wouldn’t be surprised to see more sinkholes form across Central Florida in the near future, and reiterated the geological conditions in Florida in general are ideal for sinkholes.