Highway in Ottawa, Canada

[Paul Nadon]

Yesterday going home, this is what I saw. My wife had just drove over it 15 min before this happened.

Sinkhole from hell.

 

[Tiens Van Zyl]

Holy Jeepers!

That is hectic. Hope no one got hurt?

 

[Chronus]

How on earth do things like this happen?

Hope nobody got hurt.

 

[Scott Webber]

How on earth do things like this happen?

Hope nobody got hurt.

ant invasion underground.... they are populating and need bigger places to live

 

[Hampus Andersson]

Insane. here are some larger scale ones

I wonder what´s down there.. well apart from the house that followed down.

Some info on why they exist,

• Natural sinkholes are formed when sub-surface rock dissolves to create underground cavities. They are most often found where the rock below the land surface is limestone, dolomite, carbonate rock, salt beds, or rocks that can be naturally dissolved by circulating groundwater. In the U.S., natural sinkholes are most common in Florida where karst (limestone) geography is an ingrained part of the landscape. Other states where natural sinkholes are likely to be found are Texas, Alabama, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee and Pennsylvania. Natural sinkholes often form following a period of heavy or prolonged rain. They may also form following a period of drought, which can lower the water table and expose cavities.

• Human-induced sinkholesare consequences of land-use practices, especially water-pumping and construction. Other types of human-induced sinkholes result from:
  • abandoned septic tanks. Even as communities modernize and switch from septic to sewer systems, the old septic tanks may remain in place. The concrete cover may eventually crack and break down, allowing the earth above to drop suddenly, especially beneath the weight of a person. In one week in 2004, two such incidents occurred in New Jersey and in Texas, claiming the lives of a 2-year-old girl and a 92-year-old woman. Check with the local zoning office, which should know whether the house was built before sewer lines came into the neighborhood, which would indicate the possible presence of an abandoned septic tank;
  • decaying, buried organic material, such as tree roots or trash. In 1993, a 7-year-old New Jersey boy fell to his death in his front yard after the ground beneath him gave way. A vein of tree debris, which had been dumped there many years before, had formed air pockets into which the soil gradually seeped, leaving a weakened surface that appeared solid;
  • collapsed mines;
  • over-pumping existing water supply wells, or drilling additional wells in close proximity, thereby lowering the aquifer; and
  • the period following housing development, which adds pressure to the supporting earth.

From Sinkholes - Int'l Association of Certified Home Inspectors (InterNACHI) http://www.nachi.org/sinkholes.htm#ixzz25cWUKo2x

 

[Paul Nadon]

How on earth do things like this happen?

Hope nobody got hurt.

News report.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottaw...sinkhole-man-escapes-highway-174.html?cmp=rss

 

[Chronus]

Hey, Paul, thanks.

I don't know what impresses me the most: the sinkhole (I have seen them big enough to swallow 2 or 3 buses) or the calm, collected and intelligent account of this survivor (I expected the guy would be in sort of a shock). Glad he is ok and man, your wife was lucky! Goodness me...

Look at a comment someone made in the CBC news page:

Wow! Last time I saw something like this it was on the Simpsons. Didn't think I'd ever see it in real life.

 

[Omer Said]

Phew, i'm happy for your wife Paul. Glad no is hurt.

Very scary moments for the survivor as there was a black water below

@Hampus; Reminds me Minecraft chunk loading errors. No one tried going down there?

 

[Hiroshi Awazu]

There was a few sinkholes here in Vancouver but not to the extent as the ones pictured here. I can't even imagine the feeling of hitting a sinkhole and going in.

Oh than the one Hampus posted, Oh Man!

 

[Chris Preston]

@Hampus; Reminds me Minecraft chunk loading errors. No one tried going down there?

Hahaha I hated "voids" in Minecraft, now it seems they're coming for us in real life.

 

[Lee Knight]

Wow, & I thought the potholes in our roads around here were getting bad!
But jokes aside, I know when I was in Mt Isa there were places about town & on the mine site where you couldn't park a car & others still which had to be avoided at all costs due to abandoned mines suddenly collapsing....

 

[Hampus Andersson]

Just imagine sitting at home, tired as hell after work, watching some TV, flipping through the channels and then realize it´s not only pitch black outside but Gravity has stopped working..

I believe there´s another one of those where a several story building just went under ground.