Sinkholes

Yes. I'm a bit odd. Sinkholes fascinate me......though I hope I never have to deal with one!

Just a small tale about sinkholes. My sister lives in a fairly rural setting in West Wales and one day noticed surveyors in the field within feet of her bungalow so she called the guy over concerned that maybe they were considering building there but the guy said no that’s not it. I’m surveying for the coal board (or whatever name it goes under now) we’re aware there are old mine shafts in this area but we’ve never been able to pinpoint them. ??? As you can imagine she was not impressed.

A little comfort for those of you who have bought property in coal mining areas. When you purchased your solicitor would have sent an enquiry to the coal authority requesting the location of the nearest known mine shaft. Of course as *tanith" says, some very old mine shafts were closed and forgotten.

There is currently road closures due to a large sink hole in Maidstone Kent. This has been ongoing for 2-3 wks now and I read it wont be sorted for another 3-4 wks.
I have seen pics on FB of a huge hole 50-60 sq ft and about 50 ft deep in Japan (don't know when it occured) it was filled and roads were re opened in days. If they can do it .............

Sink holes are not just the result of mine shafts and human activity. Many are natural solution holes, mainly in chalk and limestone where the acidic nature of the rain dissolves the rock and leaves huge hole. The karst scenery of areas of Yorkshire and Lancashire which potholers love to explore are, essentially sink holes.

A couple of years ago work was going on widening the M25, roughly between junctions 17 - 20 and sand and gravel filled solution holes could be seen all along the cuttings going deep into the chalk. As a result much of the cuttings had to to have shuttering installed or heavy duty netting rock bolted over the sand and gravel rather than just leaving it open and/or grassing over it as they usually do.

Terrifying!

Sink holes give me the creeps ?

Oh..they seem to be all over!

yup I used to live in an area with natural sink holes. Basically the buildings were okay due to foundations, but the land under the roads was very soluble leaving the road sort of suspended over nothing once the ground had been wet so there would be lots of road closures where they would fill it in then it would collapse again.

Essentially the roads needed foundations but the areas UNDER the roads were owned not by the road maintenence depts but by sewage/drainage/cable services so it was all very complicated to sort out when it happened

what monicasays
they are very disturbing,they happen under water too
www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7cOSzEKvrQ
and in the middle of streets
www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7cOSzEKvrQ
draining of underwater rivers/oilfields.fraking lots of causes

Oh my word @ that underwater sinkhole vid!!

have a friend who witnessed one of the underwater ones in canada.she said the ground shook like an earthquake.
we are having a "bumper crop" of them in florida.sandstone/limestone and our giant sandbar being destroyed by developers,theme parks and using up underground water.overpopulation fed by more crappy housing.
of course then there cliff erosion in other parts of country and world.