2024-12-18T20:08:13-05:00 https://archinect.com/news/article/150065943/a-sinkhole-has-appeared-on-the-white-house-lawn-and-so-have-swamp-jokes Alexander Walter 2018-05-23T14:15:00-04:00 >2022-07-06T11:16:08-04:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/vk/vkq2wg8pc5oa2s06.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><em><p>A sinkhole has formed on the North Lawn of the White House, and predictably, the temptation was too great for many on social media, who filled the void with all the &ldquo;drain the swamp&rdquo; jokes and metaphors one could imagine. But forget the obvious political jabs and the fact that President Trump uses that phrase as a rallying cry about eliminating corruption in Washington: The saying has some geological merit.</p></em><br /><br /><p>&nbsp;</p> <p>"The White House sits at the intersection of a Quaternary colluvium (base of steep slope) deposit &amp; a Pleistocene fluvial (river) &amp; estuarine deposit,"&nbsp;Jess Phoenix, a volcanologist, geologist, and currently a congressional candidate for the Democratic Party in California, commented on the natural occurrence that some have given prophetic meaning. "It&rsquo;s built on poorly consolidated sediments, not bedrock. Sinkholes happen."</p>