Definition
Also known as ponors, swallow holes are the point at which a sinking stream heads underground.
Fleury, 2009
Swallow holes are surface drainage features that direct runoff into an underground channelóin other words, they are sinkholes that form in a stream bed, often with a large vertical shaft beneath.
Fleury, 2009
Concentrated inflows of water from allogenic sources sink underground at swallow holes (also known as swallets, stream-sinks or ponors).
Ford and Williams, 2007
ponor : Hole in the bottom or side of a closed depression through which water passes to or from an underground channel. Compare swallet, swallow hole.
Monroe, 1970
stream sink : Point at which a surface stream sinks into the ground.
Monroe, 1970
swallet, swallow hole : A place where water disappears urderground in a limestone region. A swallow hole generally implies water loss in a closed depression or blind valley, whereas a swallet may refer to water loss into alluvium at a streambed, even though there is no depression.
Monroe, 1970
Frame
| LOCATION | in the bottom or side of a closed depression |
| Point at which a surface stream sinks into the ground | |
| in a closed depression or blind valley | |
| FUNCTION | through which water passes to or from an underground channel |
| Concentrated inflows of water from allogenic sources sink underground | |
| place where water disappears urderground | |
| implies water loss | |
| COMPOSITION | in a limestone region |
| FORM | sinkholes that form in a stream bed |