Within the upper Peace River streambed and
floodplain there are numerous karst features,
cracks and crevices in the rock, where water can
drain from the river down into the aquifers below.
One of the largest of these features is known
as Dover sinkhole.
Here is a photo of Dover sinkhole when it is full
of water and here is a picture of the same area
under dry conditions.
The following video and photos document Dover
sinkhole capturing river flow following a rainfall
event in 2006. USGS Hydrologist Patricia Metz
describes this event.
Patricia Metz:
A 3-inch rainfall on June 12, 2006 increased
river flow at the Peace River stream gage in
Bartow, Florida from 4 to 45 cubic feet per second.
Prior to this rain event, a 2 mile stretch of the
riverbed south of Bartow was dry. We were interested
in measuring how the karst features captured this
streamflow. We wanted to know how much water was
being diverted from the river into the groundwater system.
Here we are looking at the dry sinkhole, water is
just beginning to flow into it. We arrived in the
afternoon and saw the water coming out of the
river and flowing down into this sinkhole
feature called Dover Sink. The sinkhole had to
fill up with water before the river could
continue downstream. We measured 10 million gallons
per day flowing into Dover Sink. As the water flows
into the aquifer, it fills the holes and cavities
and the water level rises.
Here you can see the staff gage and other
instrumentation that allows us to measure the
water levels in the sinkhole and compare them
to the river levels.
By the next day, the water level in the sink was
the same as the river. From this storm event we
measured a total of 17 million gallons per day
of water that was lost to all the karst features
in this 2-mile reach of the river and floodplain.