Michigan Mystery----Gaping Crack in the Ground

Mysterious crack still begs answers

Nearly 200 yards long, 5 feet deep in parts

Updated: Wednesday, 06 Oct 2010, 5:57 PM CDT

Published : Wednesday, 06 Oct 2010, 5:57 PM CDT

Reporter: Cameron Clark

     MENOMINEE TOWNSHIP, Mich. - Nestled just beyond the tree line of Eileen Heider's 53 acres, is Menominee County's newest tourist attraction.
"It's amazing, I want to get back there and check the rest of it out," said Kevin Clermont of Wallace, Michigan, who stopped on his way home from work to sightsee.

     Heider and neighbors heard an explosion-like sound Monday morning. Heider found the nearly 200-yard-long crevice, which measures five-feet deep in parts, Tuesday.
"I was sitting in my recliner and the recliner started to vibrate," said Heider. "And it's not electric."

     Trooper Paul Anderson with Michigan State Police was the first to check it out. He said he ruled out a gas line leak, but could not determine much more.
"This would be a first," he said. "You don't learn that at the academy."
Anderson said he called some geological experts. So far none have come to look at the crevice.

     There have not been any reported earthquakes in the area.


From Unexplainable:

     A massive rift has opened up in Michigan leaving a yawning chasm that goes down 20 feet at certain points and has left local geologists, police, and fire officials entirely perplexed.  The massive rift simply opened up without warning and seems to have no real possible explanation.  As experts descend on the area, it is unclear how the mystery will unfold.  And as the case is cracked on the almost 500 foot rift, no one has any answers.

     As residents were going about their daily business on Monday, a sudden shaking sensation rocked Menominee Township's residential district.  Residents reported feeling the trembling of the Earth itself and feeling unable to sense just what the cause was, going outside to investigate after fears that the cause was an Earthquake were laid to rest.  After the shaking subsided between the hours of 8:00 and 9:00 AM eastern time, residents went outside to investigate and discovered that the Earth in a straight line through their neighborhood had suddenly yawned outward leaving a crack wide enough at points for a fully grown man to fall into and deep enough for him to disappear into the darkness within.

        One anonymous poster on the internet described the event as being like ground was opening up and hell was spilling out.  State and local police were soon called and descended on the area.  Soon geologists, county officials, and fire marshals were present as well, each weighing in their expertise and each coming back to the same conclusion - it was a complete mystery.

      And since the story first broke through local news stations, theories have been spreading like wildfire blaming everything from the planet's shifting poles to nibiru and 2012.  The crack in the Earth is a definite sign of the end times for some while others are blaming an undiscovered fault line or glacial rebound due to global warming.  Regardless of the cause, however, it seems to several experts that we may be dealing with an entirely new geological phenomenon.

        And with the Earth going through so many rapid changes in such a short span of time, this certainly doesn't seem beyond the realm of reason.

      But how big of an event could this be?  The crack suggested not only the shifting of two plates along a fault line, but actually separating as well.  Had the crack been much larger, it could have threatened to create a large chasm that threatened to pull people into it as well.  But did the shift increase the risk of Earthquakes elsewhere?  Or did it indicate another shift that may be taking place in the near future? 

      As geologists work to solve the enigma of this sudden crack opening up in an otherwise peaceful neighborhood, we must be forced to simply speculate and hope this doesn't indicate a larger problem.

     As for the residents of Menominee, the crack is certainly causing no small amount of worry over what could follow.

      Could this be the result of all the oil being pumped from ground on the other side of the world causing gaps and voids that are collapsing?