Small Sinkhole in the Village

Observation by Jerry Chase:

First time seeing this in Anvik, Alaska. It was filled in (road maintenance) before the weekend.

Comment by LEO Network Editors:

Thank you Jerry for the observation and photos. Sometimes sink holes can be related to the built environment, such as leaks from water or sewer lines. Sometimes it is related to the natural environment such as extreme rain events, extreme temperatures and related subsurface changes from flooding, erosion or thawing. For the impacts related to utilities, the local utility managers would be the best contact. It looks like someone got right on this with the road and bank repairs. For natural causes it would be interesting to look at the weather conditions for the days and weeks prior. There is limited historical weather data that we could find for Anvik, but there is good data available for Bethel (readers note:138 air miles away), where the weather was sunny and warm for the last week of May. We pulled some climate data for Bethel looking at the period of April 1 to June 1 for temperature and precipitation going back to 1923. This data shows that this Spring although not any wetter then average, was considerably warmer (see image). In fact it was one of the warmest April - June periods on the record. We shared your post with climate scientists at UAF Center for Climate Assessment and Policy and with the Permafrost Discovery Gateway. We will be interested to hear if other sinkholes develop in Anvik or the area. M. Brubaker

Comment from Gemini:

Several 'Related Posts' highlight similar impacts on infrastructure and communities around Alaska: sinkholes causing road closures in Anchorage (April 2023) and forcing evacuations in Chefornak (January 2021), and a new airport in Tununak threatened by shifting ground (October 2017). Thawing permafrost threatens cultural sites like cemeteries, as seen in Kongiganak (October 2017), where graves are sinking into the ground. While this observation doesn't explicitly link the sinkhole to permafrost thaw, the geographic location and increasing prevalence of such events in Alaska suggest a possible connection. Continued monitoring and documentation of these events are crucial, especially in the context of a warming climate. Further investigation into the geological features of the area where the sinkhole appeared in Anvik, similar to the mention of volcanic boulders in Chefornak, could provide valuable insights into the underlying causes.