Likely caused by water on limestone as most sink holes are.
Makes sense but doesn't one usually see water in the bottom? I wonder how far down to the limestone layer there? Ours here is 400 feet.
Maybe there is no connection. However, the Ogallala Aquifer, which stretches from South Dakota to Texas, and right through that part Kansas, has been dropping significantly in the last 80 years. I believe it dropped about 100 feet from about 1940 to 1980. New rules and more efficient irrigation cut the annual depletion. I've had some long discussions with my older son's in-laws in Nebraska and Oklahoma about it. They range from corn and beef producers to major land developers. As I recall, the Ogallala is still unfortunately dropping somewhere around 2.5 to 3.0 feet per year.
One of my closest friends is part of a long-time well drilling family from Nebraska. He is now 76. His grandfather started the business. For the more than 40 years that he and I worked together, he talked about the consequences of pumping so much water out of the Ogallala.
From my poor memory, I believe that the Ogallala was a saturated underground water reservoir about 200 feet thick, that started at about 100 feet below ground surface in Nebraska, Kansas, and Texas. That was in the great Dust Bowl years.
Maybe somebody with more knowledge about it can provide better info. But, I believe that over half the Ogallala has been depleted since WWII, and continues to be depleted.
I don't know if this huge water depletion is a cause of the big sink holes in the area. It just seems like there could be some connection.
