[Rockhounds] Giant Sinkhole Opens Up In South Dakota and Exposes Abandoned Mine

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

About a dozen houses in Black Hawk, South Dakota, were evacuated after a
sinkhole opened under the Hideaway Hills development. The ground started to
give way on the 27th of April and while it has left a lot of uncertainty
for the locals, the situation has led to a unique discovery. The
residential homes were built over an abandoned gypsum mine.

The authorities are already trying to figure out how this could’ve happened
but in the meantime, explorers of a local caving group called *Paha Sapa
Grotto* decided to take a look inside.

The *Paha Sapa Grotto* is a subchapter of the National Speleological
Society and is a world leader in caving science, exploration, and
conservation. “When we heard about the sinkhole, we knew it was on a
geological unit that could potentially have caves in it,” Nick Anderson, a
member of Paha Sapa Grotto, told *Bored Panda*. “We also knew that county
emergency management wouldn’t have much experience in this area so we
offered to help to determine the scope of the problem.”

https://www.boredpanda.com/sinkhole-south-dakota-black-hawk-old-gypsum-mine/