Dr. Ming Ye

PhD, University of Arizona

Professor

Office: 303 Carraway Building

Department of Scientific Computing

Office: 489 Dirac Science Library

Phone: (850) 644-4587
Fax: (850) 644-0098
Email: mye@fsu.edu

Project Title:
Turning a Lake Sinkhole Event into Natural/Man-Made Tracer Experiments and Data Collection Campaign for Advanced Understanding of Karst Hydrogeology and Solute Transport

Sponsored by the NSF Hydrologic Science Program

Principal Investigators:

• Dr. Ming Ye, Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Science, Florida State University
• Dr. Stephen Kish, Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Science, Florida State University

Collaborators:

• Tom Greenhalgh, Karlee Fowler, Jonathan Arthur, and Harley Means at the Florida Geological Survey

Graduate Students: Brian Woodall and Nur Ahmed

Visiting Scholar: Qiaobing Kang and Sheng Luo

Project Summary:

Although lake drainage into sinkholes is common occurrences in karst systems, little is known about the relationships among lake\ water, groundwater, spring water, and river water. The continuous drainage of a large amount of lake water and water-contained \ contaminants into lake sinkholes can be viewed as a natural tracer experiment. If the contaminant concentrations are monitored i\ n downgradient karst springs and rivers, the lake sinkhole drainage can be used to gain knowledge about the transport of water a\ nd contaminants. To test this, the project will use a man-made dye tracer along with water chemistry measurements to in an activ\ ely draining lake sinkhole. The dye tracer and water chemistry will be monitored and measured in the lake, the upper Floridan aq\ uifer, karst springs, and rivers. Results from this project will be shared with the Florida State Geological Survey and environm\ ental management agencies.

This project examines the hydrologic connection among lake drainage via sinkholes, springs, and estuaries in a karst system. A d\ ye tracer experiment will be used to calculate the transit time from an actively draining lake sinkhole to downgradient springs \ and rivers. To evaluate if environmental tracers or contaminants can be used as surrogates for dye tracer experiments in karst s\ ystems, chromophoric dissolved organic matter measurements will be taken in conjunction with the dye tracer. The results of this\ study and the associated methods development may be applied to many other karst systems in the U.S. The PIs will collaborate wi\ th the Florida State Geological Survey and their results will be shared with state government water resources and environmental \ management agencies.

      Lake Miccosukee plant         Lake Miccosukee (near shore)

 2018 Lake Miccosukee sinkhole         Field trip with students

 Miccosukee sink experiment            Turner sink experiment

Media Coverage of Lake Miccosukee Sinkhole Events:

• A sinkhole event occured at the end of October 2010, and this was report by WCTC, a local TV station. WCTV report of the 2010 lake sinkhole event.
• Another sinkhole event occurred at the end of January 2018, and this was report by WFSU, the local PBS station. WFSU report of the 2018 lake sinkhole event.
• Watch Youtube video of the 2018 sinkhole event.

Project Activities:

• February 19, 2016. Professor Ye gave a demo of sinkholes at the STEAM Day held at the Florida High, Tallahassee.
• August 24 - November 23, 2015. Roger Pacheco Castro visited Hohai University, China to conduct Karstexperiment together with Professor Jian Zhao and his student, Xiaohu Tao.
• July 7, 2015. Professor BooHyun Nam of the Central Florida University visited our sikhole lab for conducting collaborative research on sinkhole study.
• June 8 - July 16, 2015. Two high school students (Alex Howard and Deirdre Edward) from the Florida Young Scholar Program worked with us on data analysis and sinkhole experiments.
• March 5, 2015: The Fox News Tampa filmed our laboratory experiment on sinkhole study.
• February 19, 2015: The History filmed our laboratory experiment on sinkhole study.
• July 30, 2014: The PBS/WFSU filmed our laboratory experiment on sinkhole study.
• July 28, 2014: A research group from UCF visited for potential collaboration on sinkhole study.
• June 24, 2014: The PBS/NOVA program filmed our laboratory experiment on sinkhole study.
• May 8, 2014: Dr. Ye had a field trip to study sinkholes in Virginia with Dr. Dan Doctor at USGS Reston.
• April 21, 2014: Dr. Ye had a field trip to study sinkholes in Brook Quarry with Harley Means at the Florida Geological Survey.
• February 17, 2014: Dr. Dangliang Wang joined our group to work on this project. Dangliang's Profile

Experiment Videos:

• Experiment demonstration (February 19, 2016) for K-12 students on the Florida STEAM Day at Florida High. Watch the video that kids had fun!
• Experiment demonstration (August 14, 2014): PBS/WFSU reported our sinkhole experiments. Watch YouTube Video
• Experiment 1 (June 16, 2014): Sinkhole formation due to lowering potentiometric surface of the confin\ ed aquifer. Watch YouTube Video
• Experiment 1 (June 16, 2014): Sinkhole formation due to lowering potentiometric surface of the confined aquifer. Watch YouTube Video
• Experiment 2 (June 18, 2014): Sinkhole formation due to increasing water table of the unconfined aquifer. Watch YouTube Video

Conference Abstracts:

• Tao, X., M. Ye, D. Wang, X. Wang, J. Zhao, and R.P. Castro (2014), Experimental investigation of catastrophic cover-collapse sinkhole formation, AGU meeting, December 15 - 19, San Francisco, CA.

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles:

• Wang, D., M. Ye, X. Tao, and D.H. Doctor (2015), Impacts of negative pressure on seepage force due to aquifer over-pumping, Geophysical Research Letter, Under Preparation.