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Salt dissolution and subsidence or collapse caused by human activities

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DOI: 10.1130/2005.4016(09)

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Geological Society of America

Reviews in Engineering Geology, Volume XVI
2005

Salt dissolution and subsidence or collapse caused by human

activities

Kenneth S. Johnson':'
Oklahoma Geological Survey, 100 E. Boyd, Room N-13J, Norman, Oklahoma 73019, USA

ABSTRACT

Salt (halite, NaCI) is the most soluble of common rocks; it is dissolved readily and
forms a range of subsidence or collapse features as a result of human activities. Bedded
or domal salt deposits are present in 2S of the 48 contiguous United States and underlie
nearly 20% of the land area. These salts occur in 17 separate structural basins or geo-
graphic districts in the United States, and either local or extensive examples of natural
or man-made salt karst are known in almost all of these basins or districts.
Human activities have contributed to the development of salt karst. Boreholes
or underground mines may enable (either intentionally or inadvertently) unsaturat-
ed water to flow through or against the salt deposits, thus allowing development of
small to large dissolution cavities. If the dissolution cavity is large enough and shal-
low enough, successive roof failures can cause land subsidence or catastrophic col-
lapse. Because salt dissolution proceeds rapidly, human-induced karst features often
develop quickly and with dramatically adverse impacts.
Industries associated with local salt-dissolution and collapse features include
solution mining (e.g., Cargill sink, Kansas; and Grand Saline sink, Texas), petroleum
activities (e.g., the Wink sinks, Texas; Panning sink, Kansas; and Gorham oil field,
Kansas), and underground, dry mining of salt (e.g., Jefferson Island mine, Louisiana;
and Retsof mine, New York).

Keywords: evaporite karst, salt karst, collapse structures, sinks, sinkholes.

INTRODUCTION al. (1964), Johnson (1981, 1992, 1997), Gustavson et al. (1982),
Quinlan et al. (1986), White (1988), Martinez et al. (1998), and
Deposits of rock salt (halite, NaCl) are widely distributed Johnson and Neal (2003).
in the United States; they underlie nearly 20% of the land area Because of the especially rapid rate of salt dissolution,
and are present in 25 of the 48 contiguous states (Fig. 1). They human activities can induce (either intentionally or inadvertently)
occur in 17 separate structural basins or geographic districts in substantial karstic development that can quickly produce highly
the nation. Salt is highly soluble and is subject to karst develop- adverse impacts, such as subsidence and collapse of overlying
ment in ways that are similar to karst in carbonate rocks, but with strata. Several recent reports that document some of these adverse
much faster rates of dissolution. Natural karstic processes in salt impacts from human activities in the United States are by WaI-
have been described in a number of reports, including DeMille et ters (1978,1991), Dunrud and Nevins (1981), Baumgardner et al.
(1982), Ege (1984), Coates et al. (1985), Johnson (1987,1997,
••E-mail: ksjohnson@ou.edu 1998), Martinez et al. (1998), and Johnson and Neal (2003). This
Johnson, K.S., 2005, Salt dissolution and subsidence or collapse caused by human activities, in. Ehlen, J., Haneberg, W.e., and Larson, R.A., eds., Humans as
Geologic Agents: Boulder, Colorado, Geological Society of America Reviews in Engineering Geology, v. XVI, p. 101-110, doi: 10.1130/2005.4016(09). For
permission to copy, contact editing@geosociety.org. ©2005 Geological Society of America.

101
102 K.S. Johnson
CZJ Area underlain by rock salt
~ Area of salt domes or salt anticlines
PERMIAN - Major salt basins
Piceance - Other salt deposits
Figure I. Map showing rock-salt deposits in the United States (modified from Johnson and Gonzales, 1978). The seven
sites with sinkholes or collapse features discussed in the text are also shown on the map.
report describes the processes involved in development of salt
karst and cites several examples of adverse salt-karst impacts that
have resulted from human activities.
GEOLOGY OF SALT DEPOSITS
Salt deposits are widespread sedimentary rocks that form
mainly by evaporation of saline waters. Most major depos-
its form by direct precipitation from concentrated seawater.
Because of its high solubility, bedded rock salt is found at the
land surface in the United States only in extremely arid settings
in Nevada and Utah. Elsewhere, salt occurs in the subsurface
in extensive layers that are several meters to several hundred
meters thick. Locally, salt has flowed into large salt domes
or salt anticlines that may be several kilometers in width and
depth. These salt beds, domes, and anticlines typically are at
least several tens of meters or hundreds of meters below the
land surface; shallower parts of the salt deposits commonly
have already been dissolved. Salt is an important and valuable
mineral resource, and in many parts of the United States it has
been mined. Salt deposits have been drilled into (or through) by
human activities that include (1) drilling for salt, potash, and/or
petroleum, (2) developing solution caverns in salt for storage of
liquid products, or (3) disposing of waste fluids generated by
extractive industries.
KARST PROCESSES IN SALT
Salt is highly soluble; it is the most soluble of the common
rocks that are widespread in the world. Groundwater in contact
with salt will dissolve some of the salt, provided the water is
undersaturated with respect to NaCl. For extensive dissolution
to occur, it is necessary for the brine, thus formed, to be removed
from the salt deposit; otherwise the brine becomes saturated, and
the process of dissolution stops.
Four basic requirements are necessary for salt dissolution
and the development of salt karst (Johnson, 1981): (1) a deposit of
salt against which, or through which, water can flow, (2) a supply
of water that is unsaturated with NaCl, (3) an outlet, whereby the
resulting brine can escape, and (4) energy (such as a hydrostatic
head or density gradient), to cause the flow of water through the
system. When all four of these requirements are met, salt dis-
solution and karst development are extremely rapid in terms of
geologic time, and even in human time!
Human activities that are most likely to create these four
requirements are those that involve mining the salt or drilling
boreholes into or through subsurface salt deposits, and then inad-
vertently or intentionally allowing unsaturated water to enter into
the borehole or mine. If uncontrolled dissolution of salt occurs,
a cavity can then increase in width to the point where the roof
will no longer be supported. Collapse of the roof, followed by a

Salt dissolution and subsidence or collapse caused by human activities
series of successive roof failures, can cause the cavity to migrate
upward, If the original cavity is large enough and shallow enough,
the disturbance can reach the land surface, resulting either in land
subsidence or in sudden, catastrophic collapse (a sinkhole).
Human activities most likely to contribute to salt dissolution
include solution mining of salt, petroleum activity, and dry min-
ing of salt.
IMPACTS FROM SOLUTION MINING
Solution mining is the process of extracting soluble miner-
als, such as salt or potash, in the following manner: (1) intro-
ducing a dissolving fluid (i.e., water) into the soluble rock in
the subsurface, (2) dissolving the minerals and forming a brine,
(3) recovering the brine, and (4) extracting the mineral from
the brine (usually by evaporation). Solution mining typically
entails creation of one or several large underground cavities that
are filled with brine (Marsden and Lucas, 1973). In fact, some
solution-mining operations are carried out specifically to create
such a cavity for the underground storage of various liquids and
gases; the liquids and gases are then injected into the storage
cavity to displace the brine, and they can be recovered later by
reinjecting the brine.
Solution-mining cavities are created in bedded salts, salt
domes, and salt anticlines. The cavities typically are 10-100 m
in diameter and are 10-600 m high, both dimensions being based
largely on the thickness of the salt and the depth to the top of the
cavity. Nearby cavities can also be joined together hydraulically,
thus allowing fresh water to be pumped down one borehole and
brine to be extracted from the other; such cavities may end up
quite long and relatively naITOW.
It is possible for cavities to become larger or shallower than
planned as a result of uncontrolled dissolution or unanticipated
geologic conditions or engineering/construction problems, and a
number of these cavities have produced surface subsidence or
collapse structures. Dunrud and Nevins (1981) reported ten areas
of solution mining and collapse within the United States alone,
and additional sites are known from many other parts of the
world. Most unanticipated solution-mining collapses result from
cavities formed 50-100 yr ago, before modem-day engineering
safeguards were developed; proper, modem design has virtually
eliminated this problem in new facilities.
Two well-documented collapse structures in the United
States are Cargill sink, in Kansas, and Grand Saline sink, in
Texas (Fig. 1).
Cargill Sink, Kansas
Walters (1978) investigated a major sink caused by solution
mining for salt in a brine field at Hutchinson, in Reno County,
Kansas (Fig. 2). The collapse occurred on October 21, 1974, on
the property of Cargill, Inc., and reached a diameter of -60 m
within four hours. Settlement continued until the afternoon of
October 23, 1974, when the crater stabilized with a diameter of
,-
'/
103
-90 m and a maximum depth of -15 m (Fig. 3). The volume of
the crater was calculated to be -70,000 m'.
Salt has been solution-mined on these properties since 1888
(Walters, 1978). The Permian Hutchinson salt here is -105 m
thick and occurs at a depth of -130 m below the ground surface
(Fig. 2). The salt is overlain by red and gray Permian shales, and
these, in turn, are overlain by -20 m of water-saturated, loose
Quaternary sand. The locations of many of the earlier brine wells
are not known, and the early-day dissolution methods often were
uncontrolled; therefore, the location and extent of many of the
solution cavities on this property are unknown. The sink devel-
oped within the area of an active brine field that included both
operating and abandoned wells. Embraced within the sinkhole
was a well that had been drilled in 1908 and finally was plugged
and abandoned in 1929.
Postsubsidence test drilling of the Cargill sink area showed
that a northeast-trending cavern had developed in the Hutchinson
salt beneath the sink (Walters, 1978). Elongation of the cavern
parallels a line of brine-producing wells that were hydraulically
connected. The span of the cavern roof is more than 400 m in its
long dimension, but less than 90 m in its short dimension. The
roof span apparently exceeded the capacity of overlying shales
to support the overburden. Failure of the roof caused collapse of
successive overlying rock units until the uppermost rock layer
finally collapsed into the water-filled void. At this point, the
water-saturated Quaternary sands dropped into the cavity, creat-
ing the surface sink (Fig. 3). The sand flowed down and now fills
a chimney that is -30 m in diameter and located below the center
of the sinkhole (Fig. 2).
Grand Saline Sink, Texas
A large sinkhole developed suddenly in the city of Grand
Saline, Texas, on April 27, 1976 (Dunrud and Nevins, 1981). The
sink occurred at the site of a well that had produced salt by solu-
tion-mining methods from 1924 through 1949 (Fig. 2). The bore-
hole penetrated the Grand Saline salt dome at a depth of -60 m.
Salt in the dome is overlain by -50 m of Eocene claystones, and
these, in turn, are overlain by -10 m of unconsolidated Quater-
nary silt and clay.
Failure occurred in two stages (Dunrud and Nevins, 1981).
First, a sinkhole, 4-6 m in diameter and more than 15 m deep,
opened up. Second, the hole widened rapidly as slabs around the
rim toppled into the sink, and it reached a diameter of -15 m a
few hours after the initial collapse. A total of -8500 m' of silt and
clay ultimately was displaced into the underground cavity. Ege
(1984) points out that a similar collapse took place just east of
this sink in J 948.
IMPACTS FROM PETROLEUM ACTIVITY
Petroleum drilling is less likely to cause collapse features
above salt deposits than solution mining. Petroleum-industry
activities that may lead to adverse impacts from salt karst include
r -

SW NE A A'

0 0
.. '
I- Ul I-
w
W
c: loLl
loLl
u, ....
W u.
w 100
~
J:'
~
300
I-
0.. ~ Ul
w :x: c:
0 I-
0.. ....
W

200 w w
0
~
200
60
L L
100
L L L L L
100
L SALTL L L L

L L L L SALT L

l:.. L L I I I L
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L L L L L L L

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L L L L L L L L L L

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+ +
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+ + +
+ Base salt

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0 200 FEET

Figure 2. On left is cross section through Cargill sink, Kansas (modified from Walters, 1978); cavity shape is hypothetical. On right is cross sec-
tion through Grand Saline sink in Grand Saline salt dome, Texas (modified from Dunrud and Nevins, 1981).

Figure 3. Cargill sink, formed as a result

of solution mining of salt near Hutchin-
son, Kansas (photograph courtesy of
Deming Studio). Formation of the 90 m
diameter sinkhole left the Missouri-Pa-
cific railroad tracks suspended 6 m in
the air.
 Salt dissolution and subsidence or collapse caused by human activities
the drilling of exploration, production, or salt-water-disposal
boreholes into, or through, subsurface salt units. Unintentional
dissolution of the salt can create a cavity that is as large and
shallow as those created in solution-mining activities. And if the
cavity becomes too large for the roof to be self-supporting, suc-
cessive roof failures may cause the collapse to migrate upward
and perhaps reach the land surface. Most of the collapses related
to petroleum activity involve boreholes drilled long ago, before
development of proper engineering safeguards pertaining to drill-
ing-mud design, casing placement, and salt-tolerant cements.
With the increase in rotary drilling during the 1920s, 1930s,
and 1940s, boreholes drilled by petroleum companies typically
used water-based drilling muds that circulated against the walls of
the holes. In most areas, these muds were unsaturated with respect
to salt (NaCl). It was common for salt units in a borehole to be at
least slightly enlarged, or perhaps even greatly enlarged. In areas
underlain by shallow salt deposits, well-drilling companies now
use a drilling fluid that is saturated with respect to salt and still
provides desirable drilling-mud characteristics. And to ensure that
salt units encountered in a borehole are properly sealed off, lon-
ger strings of surface casing and intermediate protective casing
are used (with improved cements), and the annulus (the interval
between the casing and surrounding rock) is filled with cement all
the way to the surface upon completion of the drilling.
The sources of unsaturated waters that can reach the salt
units in poorly cemented or poorly cased old wells, or in wells
with corroded tubing or casing, include fresh groundwater that
seeps down from shallow aquifers, unsaturated formation brine
that enters the borehole from above or below the salt, unsaturated
brine that is coproduced with the oil and/or gas, and unsaturated
brine pumped down an injection well, either for brine disposal or
for enhancing petroleum production (secondary recovery).
Two well-documented collapses in oil fields are the Wink
sinks, in Texas, and Panning sink, in Kansas (Fig. 1). Salt-sub-
sidence problems are also described in the Gorham oil field in
Kansas.
Wink Sinks, Texas
Two major sinkholes and two broad areas of ground subsid-
ence have developed near the town of Wink, in Winkler County,
Texas (Fig. 4). The first sinkhole, Wink sink #1, formed on June
3, 1980, and it had expanded within 24 h to a maximum width
of 110 m (Baumgardner et aI., 1982). Two days later, the maxi-
mum depth of the sinkhole was 34 m and the volume was esti-
mated at -159,000 m'. The collapse occurred near the middle of
the Hendrick field, a giant oil field that has been operating since
1926; one abandoned oil well (the Hendrick well IO-A, drilled
in 1928) was incorporated within the sink itself, and a second oil
well was plugged and abandoned later because of its proximity
to the sinkhole.
It appears that Wink sink #1 resulted from an underground
dissolution cavity that migrated upward by successive roof fail-
ures, thereby producing a collapse chimney filled with brecciated
105
rock (Fig. 5) (Baumgardner et al., 1982; Johnson, 1987, 1997,
1998; Johnson et al., 2003). The dissolution cavity had developed
in salt beds of the Permian Salado Formation, which is -260 m
thick and is -400-660 m beneath Wink sink #1. Natural dissolu-
tion of salt beds in the Salado Formation in Winkler County and
other areas of west Texas and New Mexico is well known, but the
dissolution and collapse associated with Wink sink #1 apparently
resulted from, or at least was accelerated by, oil-field activity in
the immediate vicinity of the sink.
The Hendrick welllO-A, an abandoned oil well, was located
at the site of the sinkhole, and it appears that it may have been a
pathway for water to come in contact with the Salado salt (John-
son, 1987, 1997, 1998; Johnson et al., 2003) (Fig. 5). In alllikeli-
hood, the well was drilled using a freshwater drilling fluid that
enlarged or washed out the borehole within the salt sequence.
Ineffective cement jobs, and possible fractures in the cement lin-
ing, may have opened pathways for water movement up or down
the borehole outside of the casing. Because of probable borehole
enlargement during drilling in the Salado salts, the small amount
of cement reportedly used to set the casing in the hole was proba-
bly enough to cement only the lower part of the hole, thus leaving
most of the salt section uncemented behind the casing (Johnson,
1987, 1997, 1998; Johnson et al., 2003). Casing in the well prob-
ably was perforated by corrosion due to production of great quan-
tities of oil-field brine; this would parallel the casing corrosion
e
41 40
j
/
-,
34 35
eo
WINK SINK#2
1 Mile o Borehole through
1-6 Km Salado salt
Figure 4. Location of Wink sinks #1 and #2 and two broad subsidence
features, areas A and B, just northeast of the town of Wink (modified
from Johnson, 1987). Map area is in Block B-5, Public School Land
Survey, Winkler County, Texas. The full areal extent of areas A and B
is not yet determined.
r -

106 K.S. Johnson

A
°IP~~~~~~~~
B f1 c o k·~£---IO m
Ft. Quaternary Quaternary
Alluvium Alluvium
Santa Rosa Santa Rosa o
fresh water enter. o
6 borehole from one
o Tecovas or more aquifers Tecovas
10
f---._ .. _- .... - o
o
N
Dewey Dewey
o Lake
f Lake
o
o

Rustler
r--- ~80
oaDQ09(j Rustler
fresh water
..:...::....~....•:·?7:·,S.:···

+ + +
----1
}-----Lg
0
+ + + Early Cavity ~OOO ~
0
10 +
+ + Final Cavity

+ Salado OGJ Salado

+ + Q~ Z/,
0 + (0
0 + + o
0 + 0 o
N CD

Tansill
\ Tansill

Yates Yates
~
Well drilled In 1928. 011 produced from 1928-1951. Roof collapses and cavity Collapse reaches surface
Borehole Is crooked. Well plugged In 1951 and 1964. migrates upward (1960?) June 3, 1980.
Cavity develops between
1928-1980.

Figure S. Cross section through Hendrick well lO-A showing possible relationship of well to salt dissolution and development of Wink sink #
1 in Texas (Johnson, 1987). Explosives were used during drilling to try to straighten the borehole, and this may have fractured the cement. The
casing was removed from the borehole later, allowing circulation of groundwater from upper formations into the salt section.

that was observed in the nearby Hendrick well 3-A, which had a
similar history of drilling, completion, and production. Explosives
used to realign well lO-A while drilling in the underlying Tansill
Formation not only fractured the rock and increased its permeabil-
ity locally, but also may have fractured the cement lining farther
up the borehole. In addition, casing was removed from well 10-A
in 1964, leaving an unlined borehole in the interval from the base
of the Santa Rosa aquifer to the top of the Rustler Formation for a
period of 16 yr, until formation of Wink sink #1.
All of the above-mentioned activities, although consistent
with standard industry practices during the life of Hendrick well
lO-A, could have aided in conducting fresh water from shallow
aquifers down the borehole to the salt beds (Johnson, 1987, 1997,
1998; Johnson et al., 2003) (Fig. 5B). Outlets for the high-salin-
ity brine, formed by dissolution of salt in the borehole, included
the porous and permeable strata underlying the Salado Forma-
tion, as well as possible preexisting dissolution channels within
the Salado. Thus, a dissolution cavity may well have been formed
around well 10-A, probably in the upper part of the salt sequence
(Fig. 5B), and this cavity eventually would have become suffi-
ciently large to permit collapse of the roof (Fig. 5C). By succes-
sive roof failures, the cavity then migrated upward until it finally
reached the land surface and created Wink sink #1 (Fig. 5D).
Subsequent studies (Collins, 2000; Johnson et al., 2003) have
shown that subsidence features have continued to develop adja-
cent to Wink sink #1. The area just east of this sinkhole appar-
ently has subsided -8.5 m since 1980, and a series of concentric
fissures or small faults are now present within -85 m of the sink.
In 1999, two broad areas of ground subsidence were
observed -1-1.5 km south-southeast of Wink sink #1 (areas A
and B on Fig. 4). A series of earth fissures, sagging power lines,
tilted poles, and dip on the surface of a once-level well pad trig-
gered a field study by Collins (2000), who documented signifi-
cant ground subsidence in the two areas, each of which is prob-
ably several hundred meters across. In area A the ground appar-
ently has subsided as much as 7 m between 1970 and 1999, and
in area B the subsidence was as much as 8.5 m in the same time
period. The full areal extent of these subsidence features has not
yet been determined.
Areas A and B are also within the Hendrick oil field. Most of
the oil wells in and near these areas were drilled in the late 1920s,
and drilling and completion techniques were probably similar to
those used in drilling the Hendrick well lO-A (at Wink sink #1). In
addition, a water-supply well is located near area A. It is likely that
these broad, ground-subsidence features are caused by subsurface
dissolution of the Salado salt, and they may be partly related to
 Salt dissolution and subsidence or collapse caused by human activities
petroleum activity in the area (Collins, 2000; Johnson et aI., 2003).
As at Wink sink #1 and the Hendrick well 10-A, petroleum tests
and other boreholes in the area may be conduits whereby unsatu-
rated water has flowed against the salt beds and caused develop-
ment of solution cavities. If one or more deep-seated cavities do
exist under subsidence areas A and B, it (or they) has (have) not
yet breached the land surface as discrete sinkholes.
A second major sinkhole developed just 1.5 km south of
Wink sink #1 on May 21, 2002, -400 m south and west of areas
A and B (Johnson et aI., 2003) (Fig. 4). By the end of the first
day, Wink sink #2 was reported to be 140 m long and 100 m
across, and it was 30 m deep (down to water level in the sink).
A fence was quickly constructed around the sink for safety. The
sink continued to enlarge by undercutting of its vertical banks
and sloughing of material into the water-filled hole. The surface
sink continued to grow, and the water-filled pool has not yet filled
(as of March 2003), in spite of the large volume of material that
has sloughed into the hole. In March 2003, Wink sink #2 was
- 240 m long and -185 m wide; the volume was estimated at 1.33
million m' (Johnson et al., 2003).
Wink sink #2 is centered on the site of a former water-supply
well, the Gulf Oil Corporation Grisham-Hunter Surface Fee No.
WS-8. The GulfWS-8 well was completed in 1960 in the Capi-
tan Reef, at a total depth of 1092 m. In the Gulf WS-8 well, the
top and base of the Salado Formation are at depths of 412 m and
686 m, respectively; the thickness of the Salado is 274 m.
At this time, there are not sufficient data to assess the spe-
cifjc relationship of Wink sink #2 to the Gulf WS-8 well. It is
possible, however, that the well may have been a conduit for
unsaturated water to come in contact with Salado salt beds, and
that the salt may have been dissolved to create a solution cavity
that migrated upward to cause collapse of the land surface (John-
son et aI., 2003).
Panning Sink, Kansas
Rapid subsidence and collapse occurred on April 24, 1959,
around a salt-water-disposal well (Panning well II-A) in the
Chase-Silica oil field of Barton County, central Kansas (Walters,
1978). Within a 12 h period, at which time subsidence ceased,
the sinkhole expanded to -90 m in diameter and had a water
level 15-18 m below the land surface, Four days later, the size of
the sink had not increased, but the water level had risen to 3.5 m
below the surface.
Walters (1978) postulated the following sequence of events
leading to development of the Panning sink. The Panning well
ll-A, drilled in 1938 as an oil well, penetrated 91 m of Perm-
ian Hutchinson salt at a depth of 298-389 m (Fig. 6). Freshwater
drilling fluids dissolved the salt in the borehole to a diameter of
1.4 m, and this washed-out zone was not cemented behind the
15.2 em diameter casing. In 1946, the depleted oil well was con-
verted to a salt-water-disposal well. The lower part of the salt sec-
tion (but not the upper part) was then cemented behind the casing.
Brine was disposed of by gravity flow through 12.7 em tubing set
107
within the casing. Disposal was into the Arbuckle Group dolo-
mite at a depth of 995 m. In 1949, the tubing was removed, and
water was injected directly down the 15.2 ern casing. Disposal
water contained -28,000 ppm sodium chloride, and from 1946
through 1958 the well received -1.8 million m' of this brine, an
average rate of -0.3 mvrnin.
Corrosion of the 15.2 em casing caused leaks, which allowed
much of the unsaturated brine to circulate across the salt face and
then flow downward into the underlying Arbuckle dolomite (Wai-
ters, 1978). A large cavern, more than 90 m in diameter, was cre-
ated by dissolution of the salt (Fig. 6). Successive roof falls into
the cavern caused the water-filled void to migrate upward gradu-
ally, until surface subsidence, ponding of water, and tilting of the
denick forced abandonment of the well in January 1959. Surface
collapse did not occur, however, until nearly four months later
(April 24), when the uppermost mass of bedrock that spanned
the cavity finally collapsed into the water-filled void. With this
failure of Cretaceous bedrock (shales and sandstones) at a depth
of 30 m, the overlying Quaternary sands and gravels, saturated
with fresh water, were free to flow into the cavity and create the
surface sink in a matter of hours.
Gorham Oil Field, Kansas
Gorham oil field, in Russell County, Kansas, is the site of
slow subsidence of a major highway (Interstate 70) above salt-
dissolution zones in the Permian Hutchinson salt (Walters, 1991;
Croxton, 2002, 2003). A series of oil wells, drilled on four-hectare
spacing in the 1920s through the 1940s, penetrated 75 m of salt at
a depth of 390 m. The wells are now plugged and abandoned, but
corroded casing has been left in some of the boreholes at depths
above, within, and below the salt unit. As a result of what appears
to be improper plugging of these abandoned oil wells, unsatu-
rated water probably has flowed down some of the boreholes and
has dissolved large volumes of the salt.
Initial studies of the area (before road construction) did not
reveal subsidence along the proposed alignment of 1-70 through
the Gorham oil field, and final grading for the new highway was
completed in 1966 (Croxton, 2002, 2003). Subsidence of 1-70
pavement subsequently occurred, however, at several sites along
the highway, with principal sites being the Witt sink and the
Crawford sink (located -5 km and 6 km, respectively, east of the
town of Gorham). Subsidence has occurred at rates of -10-15
cm/yr, and by 1971, the lanes had dropped so much that they had
to be regraded; paving was raised by -1.5 m at both sinks, at a
cost of $220,000 (Croxton, 2002, 2003). By 1984, the lanes at
the Witt sink had again subsided nearly 2.5 m, and a line-of-sight
problem arose because cars down in the sink could not be seen
by oncoming traffic. Witt sink was again regraded and repaved in
1986, at a cost of nearly $500,000.
Attempts to remedy the problem were carried out in 1986
and 1988. A borehole was drilled adjacent to the abandoned oil
well thought to be the cause of the Witt sink, and cement with
additives was injected into the well to try to plug the old well at
108 KS. Johnson

A: 1949-1958

Hutchinson HUIChinson
,Salt _1 __ -+__ I~Blt ~ __ 'I _

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10

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Figure 6. North-south cross section
through the Panning disposal well 11-
"? PENN. W~ . PENN. W g
"'I
A, showing result of salt dissolution and
.... development of the Panning sink, Kan-
so W
sas (modified from Walters, 1978).
";

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o
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2,000 FEET Geologic Ages

610 METERS
W Water QUAT. = Quaternary
CRET. = Cretaceous
I::::: ../:j Sand 1++ +++1 Salt • Oil PERM. = Permian
c:::::J
~ Anhydrite ~~ Grani '1e I[ Cement
PENN.
-c-ORD.
= Pennsylvanian
= Oambrian-
D Shale, limestone, andlor Dolomite )L Fluid Flow PRE·'t:. =
Ordovician
Precambrian

the base of the salt. Although the plugging appeared to stop the Higher lithostatic pressure at the greater depths reduces open
settling for about six months, subsidence then resumed at a rate fractures and rock permeability, and thus the capacity for water
of 12-15 ern/yr. Present plans call for continuing to regrade the inflow.
lanes of 1-70, as needed, because an economical solution to the Two dry salt mines that have been invaded by water and have
subsidence problem has not been found (Croxton, 2002, 2003). developed overlying sinkholes are the Jefferson Island mine, in
Louisiana, and the Retsof mine, in New York (Fig. 1). Both mines
SINKHOLES OVER DRY SALT MINES are flooded and are now closed. The following data are modified
from earlier reports by Martinez et a1. (1998) and Johnson and
Sinkholes may form at the surface above underground mines Neal (2003).
of all kinds as a result of the collapse of overburden into subsur-
face voids, especially where the mines are shallow and overburden Jefferson Island Salt Mine Collapse, Louisiana
is poorly supported because of large roof spans. Dry (room-and-
pillar) salt mines create special problems in this regard, especially Jefferson Island salt dome, just west of New Iberia, Louisiana,
when groundwater finds pathways that lead to the mined-out voids. was the site of a catastrophic sink that developed in 1980 (Autin,
If a leak develops and unsaturated water enters a dry salt mine, the 1982; Martinez, 1991). This huge sinkhole presumably was trig-
salt can dissolve quite rapidly. With introduction of large volumes gered, if not caused, by the inadvertent penetration by an oil rig of a
of water, mined-out rooms can fill with salt-dissolving water, and chamber of the Jefferson Island salt mine, some 400 m below shal-
the facility then behaves like a solution mine in salt. Uncontrolled low Lake Peigneur. Lake water began leaking through the bore-
dissolution can enlarge the rooms, remove salt pillars that support hole into the underground room-and-pillar mine. The flow of water
the roof, dissolve salt that remains in the roof, induce collapse of quickly became a torrent, and soon the entire lake was drained;
the overburden, and thus create small to large sinkholes. more water was then drawn through a canal that connected the lake
Shallow salt mines are more likely to develop leaks, whereas to the Gulf of Mexico. The $5 million drilling rig vanished into the
salt mines more than 300 m deep seldom have significant leaks. giant sink, along with barges, a tugboat, and four hectares of land.
 Salt dissolution and subsidence or collapse caused by human activities
Although there were more than 50 workers in the mine and
fishermen on the lake at the time of the accident, miraculously
there was no loss of life-because well-planned evacuation and
escape procedures had been established for just such an emer-
gency. This multimillion-dollar incident has alerted operators of
other Gulf Coast salt mines to the risk, however small, of this
kind of event.
Retsof Salt Mine Collapse, New York
A temblor in western New York, first thought to be a 3.6-
magnitude earthquake, awakened local residents near the town of
Cuylerville, just west of Geneseo, during the early-morning hours
of March 12, 1994. Concurrent with this sharp energy release and
ground shaking, a major leak began flooding the world's largest
salt mine, which underlies some 26 km-. The mine, long known
as the Retsof mine, was first operated in 1885. The source of the
temblor eventually was identified as a precipitous collapse of part
of the roof in the underground room-and-pillar mine developed in
Late Silurian Salina Group salts (Nieto and Young, 1998; Gowan
and Trader, 2000, 2003; Yager et aI., 2001).
Collapse occurred where the mine is -340 m below the land
surface, and rooms in the salt mine were -3.5 m high. Mine-roof
collapse opened hydraulic pathways through newly created frac-
tures in overlying rocks. Groundwater percolated down through
a series of salt layers above the mine, partly dissolving them, and
eventually entered the salt mine itself.
About four weeks after the initial collapse in the Retsof
mine, dissolution of salt pillars in the mine (and portions of over-
lying salt beds), along with downward slump or piping of thick,
near-surface unconsolidated sediments, caused subsidence of the
land above the mine. Three large sinkholes-the largest, some
200 m across and -20 m deep-formed at the surface. The flood-
ing of the mine, at a flow rate that eventually exceeded 60,000
Limin, could not be controlled by in-mine grouting (the normal
practice), and the entire mine was flooded. The Retsof mine is
now closed, and will probably never be reopened. A new mine
has opened a few kilometers away.
Adverse impacts in the area include disruption of land, dam-
age to homes (some as far as 1.5 krn from the sinkholes), loss of
amajor highway and bridge, loss of water wells, and prohibition
of public access to the collapse area. Although sinkholes above
the Retsof mine represent major local disruption, the more sig-
nificant, longer-term effects may lie in economic disruption to
the community, along with degradation of groundwater supplies.
CONCLUSIONS
A variety of salt-dissolution and collapse features in the
United States are associated with human activities. Salt deposits
occur in 17 separate structural basins or geographic districts in
the nation, and they are present in 25 of the 48 contiguous states.
Natural or human-induced salt karst is known, at least locally, in
almost all of these areas. Salt karst is similar to carbonate karst
109
in most respects, except that the process is much more rapid. It is
more widespread than is commonly believed.
Human-induced salt karst results chiefly from mining of,
or drilling into, 'subsurface salt deposits. The most conspicuous
problems in salt deposits have developed because of solution
mining, petroleum activity, or dry mining of salt. Unsaturated
water that flows through or against the salt deposits can cause
development of small to large dissolution cavities. Such shallow-
or deep-seated dissolution cavities can result in land subsidence
or catastrophic collapse, with surface sinks being 100 m wide, or
wider, and tens of meters deep.
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