Something weird is going on at the Indiana Dunes. Something science can't explain
I've written before about the Indiana Dunes. located along most of the southern shore of Lake Michigan (well, the parts that industry didn't take), they have been there since the Ice Age. They are, in my opinion, one of the great, under-appreciated treasures of this corner of the Midwest.
Out of all the dunes that are part of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore park, there is nothing quite like Mount Baldy. Located on the eastern end of the park, west of Michigan City city limits, this enormous dune towers over everything else in the area. For as long as Michigan City existed (and probably even longer than that) people have been climbing atop of Mount Baldy to get some great views. Running down Mount Baldy is pretty damn fun, and (even though National Park Service explicitly prohibits it) people have been trying to slide down it during the winter.
That is, until last year. A young kid was playing on Mount Baldy when a hole suddenly opened up beneath him. He was trapped there for several hours. Michigan City emergency services managed to get him out, and he recovered, but the National Park Service sealed off Mount Baldy until somebody could figure out what the hell was going on with those holes.
A year later, nobody seems to have a clue. Whats more, the scientists are saying that weird holes in Mount Baldy is making them question everything they thought they knew about the dunes (emphasis mine).
Scientists are still confounded 13 months after a then-6-year-old boy was nearly buried alive in a popular sand dune in northwest Indiana, saying they found a sixth hole this week as they moved high tech gear into place to try to conduct further testing on what is causing the holes.
[...]
The geologists say what they are finding out is changing what they thought they knew about the properties of sand dunes.
Indiana University Northwest associate geology professor Erin Argyilan was at Mount Baldy conducting a wind study on July 12, 2013, when Nathan Woessner of Sterling, Illinois, became trapped more than three hours and couldn’t believe he had fallen into a hole.
“It’s disturbing because everything I knew about dunes led me to confusion. There’s no way that something like this should have happened. I’ve never read or heard about voids in dunes,” Argyilan said.
One of the working theories is that the holes might be related to decaying trees or rotting man-made structures that the dune has covered over the years, although Argyilan said other possibilities have not been ruled out. But she said they have heard about smaller holes being reported at Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area in far western Oregon and officials there say they are from decaying trees.
Todd Thompson, assistant director of the Indiana Geological Survey, said that didn’t make sense to him at first.
“Because where does the tree go? If it’s buried inside this dune and it rots, isn’t there still a mass there? It’s got to go somewhere,” he said.
Argyilan is using data compiled last year by crews using ground-penetrating radar to check out anomalies in the dune to see if trees or structures are to blame.
The latest hole, about 7 inches wide and about 4 1/2 feet deep, was discovered Wednesday in a spot where Thompson had previously stepped while moving equipment.
Most of the holes have been smaller. Argyilan estimates most of the holes have been about 2 inches wide. She said the hole found Wednesday was the deepest they’ve found. The previous deepest was about 3 feet deep.
The holes are difficult to measure, though, because by the time scientists return to measure them they have begun to fill with sand, Argyilan said.
This is getting kind of spooky.
According to the article, the scientists are supposed to present the final report within a year. I hope they do find something resembling a scientific explanation, because otherwise...
Out of all the dunes that are part of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore park, there is nothing quite like Mount Baldy. Located on the eastern end of the park, west of Michigan City city limits, this enormous dune towers over everything else in the area. For as long as Michigan City existed (and probably even longer than that) people have been climbing atop of Mount Baldy to get some great views. Running down Mount Baldy is pretty damn fun, and (even though National Park Service explicitly prohibits it) people have been trying to slide down it during the winter.
That is, until last year. A young kid was playing on Mount Baldy when a hole suddenly opened up beneath him. He was trapped there for several hours. Michigan City emergency services managed to get him out, and he recovered, but the National Park Service sealed off Mount Baldy until somebody could figure out what the hell was going on with those holes.
A year later, nobody seems to have a clue. Whats more, the scientists are saying that weird holes in Mount Baldy is making them question everything they thought they knew about the dunes (emphasis mine).
Scientists are still confounded 13 months after a then-6-year-old boy was nearly buried alive in a popular sand dune in northwest Indiana, saying they found a sixth hole this week as they moved high tech gear into place to try to conduct further testing on what is causing the holes.
[...]
The geologists say what they are finding out is changing what they thought they knew about the properties of sand dunes.
Indiana University Northwest associate geology professor Erin Argyilan was at Mount Baldy conducting a wind study on July 12, 2013, when Nathan Woessner of Sterling, Illinois, became trapped more than three hours and couldn’t believe he had fallen into a hole.
“It’s disturbing because everything I knew about dunes led me to confusion. There’s no way that something like this should have happened. I’ve never read or heard about voids in dunes,” Argyilan said.
One of the working theories is that the holes might be related to decaying trees or rotting man-made structures that the dune has covered over the years, although Argyilan said other possibilities have not been ruled out. But she said they have heard about smaller holes being reported at Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area in far western Oregon and officials there say they are from decaying trees.
Todd Thompson, assistant director of the Indiana Geological Survey, said that didn’t make sense to him at first.
“Because where does the tree go? If it’s buried inside this dune and it rots, isn’t there still a mass there? It’s got to go somewhere,” he said.
Argyilan is using data compiled last year by crews using ground-penetrating radar to check out anomalies in the dune to see if trees or structures are to blame.
The latest hole, about 7 inches wide and about 4 1/2 feet deep, was discovered Wednesday in a spot where Thompson had previously stepped while moving equipment.
Most of the holes have been smaller. Argyilan estimates most of the holes have been about 2 inches wide. She said the hole found Wednesday was the deepest they’ve found. The previous deepest was about 3 feet deep.
The holes are difficult to measure, though, because by the time scientists return to measure them they have begun to fill with sand, Argyilan said.
This is getting kind of spooky.
According to the article, the scientists are supposed to present the final report within a year. I hope they do find something resembling a scientific explanation, because otherwise...