Time-lapse high-resolution seismic imaging of a catastrophic salt-dissolution sinkhole in central Kansas

Time-lapse high-resolution seismic reflection techniques elucidate the subsurface geologic condition of a sinkhole that formed in Pawnee County near the town of Macksville in central Kansas. Collapse of the Macksville sinkhole in 1988 resulted forming a cavity that increased in size with time. This sinkhole is one of a very few that have speculated to form catastrophically from bedded salt dissolution in the central United States. Two orthogonal high-resolution seismic lines were acquired in 1998 and one was acquired in 2005, from a 204-channel fixed spread of geophones. The line acquired in 2005 was kept as close as possible to the equivalent 1998 line. This sinkhole is uncommon in terms of its initial catastrophic subsidence rate and represents a critical data point that with other data may some day allow the prediction of failure prior to surface expression.