Dr. Ming Ye

Professor

PhD, University of Arizona

Office: 489 Dirac Science Library
Phone: (850) 644-4587
Fax: (850) 644-0098
Email: mye@fsu.edu

Project Title:
Mathematical and Experimental Investigation of Catastrophic Sinkhole Collapse

Sponsored by the FSU CRC MultiDisciplinary Support (MDS) Program

Principal Investigators:

• Dr. Ming Ye, Department of Scientific Computing and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Institute, Florida State University
• Dr. Xiaoming Wang , Department of Mathematics and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Institute, Florida State University

Collaborators:

• Dr. Daniel H. Doctor at USGS Reston
• Dr. David Sumner at USGS Florida Water Science Center
• Dr. Jonathan Arthur and Harley Means at the Florida Geological Survey

Graduate Students: Roger Benito Pacheco Castro and Xiaohu Tao

Visiting Scholar: Dangliang Wang

Project Staff: Daniel Kuncicky

Project Abstract:

Sinkholes are a common features of Karst landscape in Florida, southeastern United States, and worldwide. Among all the Karst landforms, sinkholes are the most dangerous to human being; they cause death, injury, and property damage. While the types of sinkhole formation have been well understood, understanding of the triggering mechanisms of catastrophic sinkhole collapse is still limited. There are no well accepted mathematical models and numerical modeling tools to simulate sinkhole collapses. Developing such models and tools requires multidisciplinary research including geology, hydrology, soil and rock mechanics, and mathematical induction and deduction of observed physical phenomena. This multi-disciplinary project has two tasks to advance our understanding of the mechanism of catastrophic sinkhole collapse: conducting laboratory experiments and developing mathematical models. The physical insights gained in the laboratory experiments will be transferred into the mathematical models, which can be used to understand the sinkhole phenomena far beyond the lab setting and to communicate with other domain scientists. It is expected that this project will grow into a new multidisciplinary research program in the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Institute (GFDI), a center of multidisciplinary research at FSU to support theoretical, experimental, and numerical studies. The impacts of this research are not limited to sinkhole development, because the research is fundamental to groundwater flow and sediment transport in Karst aquifers in Florida, southeastern U.S., and worldwide. The research is also fundamental to fluid mechanics such as multiphase flow. External government and private supports are available in the areas of geohazards, water resources management, and insurance and oil industry.

Media Coverage:

• May 24, 2015: Dr. Ye was interviewed by Russian Today (RT) International to discuss origins of sinkholes in Russia. Watch the Youtube video. More information of Russian sinkholes.
• May 17, 2015: Our sinkhol experiment was included in the History Channel program: Engineering Disasters.
• January 28, 2015: Our sinkhol experiment was included in the PBS/NOVA program: Sinkholes - Buried Alive.
• August 14, 2014: PBS/WFSU reported our sinkhole experiments. Watch YouTube Video

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.