Huge sinkhole in Surrey street

Doesn’t the Bible have something to say about the foolishness of building a house on sand?

Also the 3 little pigs and the big bad Wolf?

Thats a big pothole!

Same happened in South Wales last year, a built up area of
terraced houses. The sinkhole happened in a modern house cul de sac

Mother nature does like to protest and pull the ground out from under our feet

On my bus route to school! DH reminded me that we looked at a house there, for £9,000. Might not have been a good investment....

Absolutely nothing to do with fracking but it is quite common in areas where the geology is a mix of sand and clay.

We lived in south east Berkshire for many years and settlement and movement and houses needing underpinning was a common occurence. Several of our friends had their houses underpinned when after exceptionally dry, or exceptionally wet weather the clay lenses either shrunk excessively of expanded excessively.

In our last house our neighbour had a problem when a hole opened out under one corner of their house. In their case a drain had shattered and all the water leaking out of it had excavated a huge hole, The drain was repaired and the hole back filled.

I understand that this hole may have been caused by a split watermain. An inconvenience, but not a disaster.

It used to be a sand quarry.

This is interesting, especially the planned evacuation to the Godstone caves in wartime.
godstone.net/aboutus/history/mines/

I thought sink holes were ancient chalk mines. One appeared near our house in Kent when I was a child. This was on the North Downs. There was a television programme about them recently. Quite colossal and very deep. Abandoned when finished with and gradually filled in over the centuries.
Maybe the Godalming hole isn't a sink hole but of more modern origin.

Coal mines in South Wales

It is Godstone not Godalming and the North Downs chalkpits are very close.

Scary- where will it end? Poor people.

Fortunately family in several parts of Surrey no-where near.

winterwhite

I thought sink holes were ancient chalk mines. One appeared near our house in Kent when I was a child. This was on the North Downs. There was a television programme about them recently. Quite colossal and very deep. Abandoned when finished with and gradually filled in over the centuries.
Maybe the Godalming hole isn't a sink hole but of more modern origin.

Sink holes can have a variety of causes. Read all about it here:
www.bgs.ac.uk/geology-projects/sinkholes-research/what-causes-sinkholes-where-uk/

Thanks for the link, M0nica. I didn't know sinkholes were also called dolines.
I have visited that very road recently, eating at a lovely pub nearby. Dread to think how all the businesses aswell as residents will suffer until it is fixed. Could be months, going from past experience.

My nightmare!😲 We rarely think about what’s under the pavement, tarmac or our own houses, and probably best not to.
In the US, in a bungalow one evening I read of a case where one teenage brother went into the older brothers bedroom and almost fell into a deep pit, virtually all the furniture including the bed with his brother on it reading a magazine had vanished.The parents called and called but no reply and the authorities came out and told the family to leave for their own safety. A rescue operation was mounted but even the furniture had gone as well as the young guy and it was incredibly deep and dangerous.In the end the house had to be pulled down and he was declared dead in the absence of a body.How terrible for his family, you can’t imagine.

I do remember people swimming in the old sandpits there. I never tried it!

Might not be a disaster for those of us who are not affected by it!

But most definitely a disaster for those living nearby.Which is why it is now a Major Incident.

The idea of sinkholes terrify me.

Doline is the name given to sinkholes in limestone countries- were the action of rain, in particular acid rain, slowly attack the stone until it collapses.

Don't think it applies to sinkholes due to mining or other phenomenon.

Sinkholes and swallowholes are not uncommon in some parts of the country.

We get sinkholes of a sort here because of old coal mining, going back so long there aren't records. One chap had a hole appear inside his bungalow.
I wonder if home insurance covers it, when it's not a known risk & just happens?

There was a sink hole near here, not a large one but deep.

This is a limestone area; limestone is porous and there are caves beneath some areas.

The sinkhole in Pant in December was caused by a collapsed culvert, and was apparently 50-60 deep, right outside somebody’s drive.
I also remember last year in Kuala Lumpur there was a woman swallowed by a sinkhole on the pavement caused by the sewage system collapsing.

We used to live near Godstone - I remember one of my daughters having a day exploring some of the tunnels with the junior natural history club. The cagoule she wore never recovered from being pressed against chalky mud walls!

It is awful for the families whose property is or may be affected. I hope the ‘experts’ get it sorted speedily.