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You are travelling along a road, minding your own business, when suddenly the earth opens up in front of you and you and everybody in your car with you, and your car, are sucked into a gaping terrifying hole many feet wide and many feet deep !!!! One could have recurring nightmares about such a scenario. Apparently these terrifying holes can occur anywhere, any time and there is not a lot that anybody can do about preventing such occurrences !

Perhaps the following documentary may help explain this frightening phenomena, or make you feel even more worried ! ..........................

lXgf9-ng

G#Gill;1494510 wrote: You are travelling along a road, minding your own business, when suddenly the earth opens up in front of you and you and everybody in your car with you, and your car, are sucked into a gaping terrifying hole many feet wide and many feet deep !!!! One could have recurring nightmares about such a scenario. Apparently these terrifying holes can occur anywhere, any time and there is not a lot that anybody can do about preventing such occurrences !

Perhaps the following documentary may help explain this frightening phenomena, or make you feel even more worried ! ..........................

lXgf9-ng


It's the Morlocks coming as close as they dare to the surface trying to capture some nice protein

Bryn Mawr;1494513 wrote: It's the Morlocks coming as close as they dare to the surface trying to capture some nice protein


I didn't know that the Eloi had all been scoffed, causing the Morlocks to go after other food !

And 'ere's me tryin' to be serious for once ! :rolleyes:

These things are basically related to underground aquifers, rivers and such under porous ground structures, like limestone. And one theory is that as the water levels in these aquifers gets lowered by water wells pulling the water to the surface, the under ground passages suffer collapses.

They happen fairly often in the South lately. One in Florida swallowed a fellow while he was sleeping in his own bed.

Subterranean water certainly seems to be the common factor in most instances, and perhaps the recent increase in their occurrence could have something to do with flood management. Rediverting water from its natural course. Building on flood plains. Land reclamation etc. Man may be able to paint over the cracks of natural formations, but Nature will always win through in the end.

If water seems to be the main culprit, then what are people doing allowing fracking to invade the UK !! America are having enough problems with fracking over there. Why can't we take notice of these problems and stop using fracking for future 'fuel' needs ?

G#Gill;1494658 wrote: If water seems to be the main culprit, then what are people doing allowing fracking to invade the UK !! America are having enough problems with fracking over there. Why can't we take notice of these problems and stop using fracking for future 'fuel' needs ?


Not sure how Fracking has anything to do with it.

LarsMac;1494663 wrote: Not sure how Fracking has anything to do with it.


Don't they drill deep shafts and pump water and chemicals into the shaft ? Have there not been any earth slips where there is fracking ? You tell me....... there is fracking all over America isn't there ? Or is there no fracking in America ? I really cannot see how damage can be avoided when thousands of gallons of this liquid is poured deep underground.

I used to live in Lancashire, and in the old mining towns there you could look at the terraced houses there & you would see the curves at the peaks of the rooves from where subsidence of the mineshafts far below had caused the buildings to drop. Now, this is just a matter of empty shafts. If you picture a sandcastle, made complete with a moat. Left alone it will remain intact for quite a while. Once you try to fill the moat with water, however, the sandcastle won't remain standing for long.

FourPart;1494670 wrote: I used to live in Lancashire, and in the old mining towns there you could look at the terraced houses there & you would see the curves at the peaks of the rooves from where subsidence of the mineshafts far below had caused the buildings to drop. Now, this is just a matter of empty shafts. If you picture a sandcastle, made complete with a moat. Left alone it will remain intact for quite a while. Once you try to fill the moat with water, however, the sandcastle won't remain standing for long.
I could just about repeat your post, substituting "Western Pennsylvania" for "Lancashire".

When you buy a house in Western PA, the deed almost always includes a "coal clause", which states that you do not own the ground under your house, that remains the property of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which can do with it as it pleases.

Of course, there is very little or no coal mining under residential areas today, at least that I'm aware of. Formerly that was not the case. Homeowners could, and still can, buy mine subsidence insurance, it costs about 40 bucks a year.

Because of the heavy loads, mine subsidence under rural highways is still common in Western PA. Repair time usually takes months.

Interesting. How far below the house does it have to be before that comes into effect?

FourPart;1494842 wrote: Interesting. How far below the house does it have to be before that comes into effect?I'm not sure, obviously the state doesn't own your back yard or garden, it MIGHT be possible that in relatively new home subdivisions, there could be some very old coal tunnels still there - how far under ???