In 2013, on Lake Michigan, a 6-year-old boy named Nathan Wessner was covered in sand when a sinkhole swallowed him up on Mount Baldy. He spent more than three hours under the sand before being freed by rescuers. But the interesting thing is where this crater and others in the area (there’s more than one) came from in the first place.
Geologist Erin Argylin, investigated the phenomenon and found that the sinkhole was caused by ancient trees that grew in the area more than 4,500 years ago. Then, for some reason, the trees were covered with sand. The trees rotted and left cavities that remained stable due to “decomposition of organic materials and biomineralization of calcium-carbonate cement.
I wonder what caused the huge trees to become littered with sand?
