NewsTracker Answers for week of Mar. 04, 2013

Q: A Florida man was presumed dead after he disappeared into a sinkhole that suddenly opened up under the bedroom of his suburban Tampa home last week. Where is Florida on this map?

Circle the area on this map

Q: Sinkholes are common in Florida because the state's porous bedrock can be dissolved by water to create underground caverns, which cause sinkholes as they collapse. With water on three sides most of Florida is a . . .

A. Isthmus

B. Peninsula

C. Swamp

D. Wetland

B. A peninsula is a piece of land that is bordered by water on three sides but connected to the mainland.

Q: While such deaths are uncommon, insurance companies successfully lobbied lawmakers to make it harder for Florida homeowners to recover damages from sinkholes. Politically, Florida is known as a . . .

A. Red state

B. Blue state

C. Swing state

D. Lost state

C. Florida has been considered a key swing state in presidential elections since 1950, voting for the losing candidate only once in that period of time.

Q: In 1994, a 185-foot-deep sinkhole opened up at a mine near Tampa. Florida mines are the nation's leading producers of which widely used material?

A. Phosphate

B. Bauxite

C. Copper

D. All of the above

A. Florida produces about 75 percent of the phosphate fertilizer used by U.S. farmers and 25 percent of the world supply. In the 1994 incident, millions of tons of phosphate mining waste poured into the sinkhole and polluted the state's water supply.

Q: Last week's sinkhole occurred near Tampa, which is on what major body of water?

A. Atlantic Ocean

B. Gulf Stream

C. Caribbean Sea

D. Gulf of Mexico

D. Tampa is on Florida's west coast on the Gulf of Mexico. The Gulf Stream is not a body of water but a powerful, warm Atlantic Ocean current. The stream starts at the tip of Florida and heads northeast, warming the East Coast and ultimately Northern and Western Europe.