When Carl Kunath asked me why I came to my conclusion, here's what I wrote him. Obviously I was wrong, but I stand by my observation that something about the photo looks weird. Perhaps somebody tried to make certain features of the photo stand out more (the dark line across the top of the hole) by using Photoshop or some other enhancement program. "The edges of the sinkhole itself make the picture look as though the sinkhole has been cut from another photo and pasted onto the photo of the roads. Look at the dark line across the top and partially around the right edge of the hole. Does not appear natural especially where it runs across the roads, especially the top road that runs diagonally up and to the left (in approximately the 11 o'clock position) and the righthand road (in approximately the 2 o'clock position). The walls of the hole seem to sit above these roads and the other two roads that run "into" it from the top left, as well as above the surrounding terrain along the top of the hole. The steam that seems to be rising from the lefthand side stops at the rim. Usually at least some of the steam--even a few wisps--would rise above the rim. This steam does not even cross the dark line at the top of the hole and seems unnaturally curtailed at the rim. Yet another indication of possibly cutting and pasting. And, although it's a bit hard to tell since the plants are so small, the shadows from the plants don't seem to run in the same direction as the shadow in the hole. It looks like the sun is shining more straight down on the plants because the shadows are primarily underneath them. In the hole, it looks like the sun is at a significantly lower angle (about 110-120 degrees) judging by how the shadow cuts across the water (or mud or whatever is in it). Because of these reasons and 20 years of experience with Photoshop, it just doesn't look authentic to me."
Subject: RE: [Texascavers] FW: Sinkhole in New MexicoDate: Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:07:17 -0500From: gschindel@edwardsaquifer.orgTo: power_lou...@hotmail.com; texascavers@texascavers.com Louise, Large sinks like this have formed before in the Wink County, Texas – Roswell – Artesia NM area. What is interesting about the photo is if you enlarge it, there appears to be dust in the left side of the sinkhole. I was wondering if this might be from a rock fall from the edge, mist rising from the pool of water, or if a car drove off the rim (cool but unlikely). If you look at the water in the bottom of the sink, you can see some large ripples that imply that something fell in. On another note, some years ago, a sinkhole opened up early one morning in a road near Fredrick, Maryland (home of Barbara Fritchie – protector of the US Flag). A fellow was driving down the road around 3AM when he drove into the sinkhole and was killed. These things can be very dangerous. Geary -----Original Message-----From: Louise Power [mailto:power_lou...@hotmail.com] Sent: Friday, July 25, 2008 3:50 PMTo: Geary Schindel; texascavers@texascavers.comSubject: RE: [Texascavers] FW: Sinkhole in New Mexico Well, obviously I was wrong on this one, but the photo that was sent out first did not look real. Sorry! List-Post: texascavers@texascavers.com Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2008 15:32:50 -0500From: gschindel@edwardsaquifer.orgTo: texascavers@texascavers.comSubject: [Texascavers] FW: Sinkhole in New Mexico Here is the link on the new sinkhole forming in New Mexico. Very interesting. Geary http://www.krqe.com/Global/story.asp?S=8700699&nav=menu588_2_5_2
