Seismic Recordings of an Anthropogenic Sinkhole Collapse

On July 16, 2008, a sinkhole several tens of meters in diameter formed abruptly at the site of a brine well in Eddy Co., NM. The well operator had been injecting fresh water into salt beds of the Permian Salado Formation and pumping out the resulting brine for use as oil field drilling fluid. Borehole problems had prevented the operator from conducting required downhole sonar surveys to assess the dimensions of the resulting subsurface void and the collapse was unanticipated.