Our project, Laboratory Simulation of Sinkhole Formation, was project to demonstrate how sinkholes form. To start our project we set up a laboratory simulation, which included a five (5) piece plexi- glass box, six (6) pounds of sugar cubes as limestone and clay with small holes and sand as soil. There was one (1) plexi- glass plate to act as a rock layer. When we finished the setup of the simulation, we connected water droppers to act as rain and studied how rain was used to form sinkholes.
While conducting our simulation we learned that once the rain soaked through the soil into the limestone and hit the rock layer and it sat there. After awhile it started to dissolve the limestone. Once the limestone was almost gone the soil had no support. This caused the soil to collapse, forming a sinkhole.
At the end of our simulation we concluded that the water drops had caused our simulation to collapse, forming a laboratory simulation of a sinkhole. Our simulation moved very fast once the water soaked though the soil into the limestone, which caused the sugar cubes to dissolve away.