14 DAY TRIAL // An artificial pond on a Newcastle, California family's back yard has been swallowed up over night, the owner says.
KCRA describes how Mark Korb found that his pond basically disappeared into a moon-like crater. It was still there on Saturday, but on Sunday morning there was only a trace of it, which can be observed in the photograph attached to this news blog.
Korb lives on a former mining area located near Dutch Ravine. In the past, it was known as "Gold County" and the name stuck.
He assesses that it took only four to five hours for the water in the pond to be swallowed up, much less than the seven days he spent draining the pond some years back.
Sierra College Professor of Geology Alex Amigo suggests that the depression was formed because an underground chamber dating back to mining times exists on the property.
Recently, I reported on an Illinois golfer falling inside a similar sinkhole on the course. He was lucky enough to survive, unlike the Florida man that was swallowed during his sleep when the ground collapsed underneath his house.