More holes found by EPA investigation of Indiana Dunes after 6-yr-old swallowed - UPDATE: Mystery continues, new 'geological phenomenon' suspected

[Emily]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-officials-find-new-hole-in-indiana-dunes-20130814,0,6219749.story

Officials find new hole in Indiana Dunes

By Ellen Jean Hirst Tribune reporter

9:55 a.m. CDT, August 14, 2013

Investigators have found an additional hole at Mount Baldy, the Indiana sand dune that swallowed up a 6-year-old boy in July.

Geologists have said that holes should not be able to form in dunes, but Bruce Rowe, a spokesman for the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, said investigators didn?t need their ground penetrating radar to detect this one...

Photo gallery with captions at link is fascinating. Nathan Woessner's survival is amazing and he looks very happy to be alive. At least part of the Dunes are closed until the science of what is happening there is understood.

The Indiana Dunes were in the news in June due to another mystery - probably still unsolved:

Swimmers ordered to stay out of Lake Michigan in northwest Indiana due to unidentified substance in water; several agencies investigating, including USGS

 

[Emily]

Re: More holes found by EPA investigation of Indiana Dunes after 6-yr-old swallowed - UPDATE: Mystery continues, new 'geological phenomenon' suspected

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/holes-in-mount-baldy-still-a-mystery-as-park-service-keeps-landmark-closed/2014/04/27/015f92f6-cdfe-11e3-b812-0c92213941f4_story.html?tid=pm_national_pop

By Angie Leventis Lourgos, Published: April 27

CHICAGO ? Geologist Erin Argyilan has in the past 10 months studied sediment, analyzed wind patterns and mapped terrain, but she hasn?t solved the mystery of the holes that appear and vanish in the beige sands of Mount Baldy at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.

?We?re seeing what appears to be a new geological phenomenon,? she said.

...

Argyilan is driven professionally and emotionally to try to help explain this curious occurrence. The geology professor had been conducting research at the base of Mount Baldy in mid-July when she heard the screams of a couple about 400 feet away, frantically pointing at the ground that swallowed their 6-year-old son.

She initially thought they were mistaken, because there should be no holes in a dune, which is comprised of grains of sand with no room for air. But when rescue crews saved Nathan Woessner of Sterling, Ill., after a three-hour burial under 11 feet of sediment, it simultaneously shattered the scientist?s understanding of the terrain, and hurt her emotionally.

?I cried for three days,? said Argyilan, associate professor of geoscience at Indiana University Northwest, who was seven months pregnant at the time and couldn?t stop replaying in her mind the horror of the day. ?I couldn?t help in the moment. So now I have to do what I can to learn why this is happening.?...