MANITOWOC (NBC 26) — Research continues into the cause of Lake Michigan's mysterious holes.
It's a story from our lakeshore that created quite a buzz, with our last report drawing hundreds of thousands of interested viewers on YouTube alone.
I'm checking back in on the Lake Michigan sinkholes after early research has shed some light on whether they're even sinkholes at all. Shrouded in mystery, the holes have sparked a new wave of research.
"They're in about 400 to 450 feet of water," said Caitlin Zant, the research coordinator for Wisconsin’s Shipwreck Coast. "Any information that we learn about these is going to be really exciting."
The Shipwreck Coast is a large area of our lakeshore where many of the holes are located. Zant says early mapping supports a leading theory.
"They're these depression features that are likely glacial in origin," Zant said. "So, these likely have been there since the last glacial retreat about 10,000 years ago."
Watch: It's not aliens! But the Lake Michigan sinkhole mystery is far from solved
But they remained hidden to the world until citizen scientists Dusty Klifman and Brendon Baillod discovered them while looking for a shipwreck last summer.
"Initially, I wasn't really excited," Baillod told me. "I didn't think much of it."
That was until he spliced images together, revealing the massive size of the holes.
"If we would've discovered something like this on land, it would have been a huge deal," Baillod said. "That we don't understand how they were formed."
While Brendon thinks they could be glacial, he's not ruling out other possibilities, including warmer water opening up vents in the lake floor.
"And if that's the case, what kind of significance does that have for climatological research, for the health of the lake?" Baillod asked.
Answers that we may soon have, thanks to a discovery by two citizens.
"Having intellectual curiosity is not something that's unique to people with Ph.D.s, right?" Baillod said. "Anyone can ask questions like this, and if they understand how to follow up on it, they can solve some really fascinating mysteries."
This summer, a grant from NOAA will allow researchers to scan the craters with a better mapping system and lasers. As with most research projects, there's no set timetable yet for any answers.
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