The Hidden Landscape

Lyndhurstman

Western Thunderer
Yes, but - you never know what's under your feet.

Around the mid 70s, towards the end of the non-articulated shovel epoch (some considerable time after the Cretaceous period ended), the very machine pictured below had just grabbed a bucketload of what was once the beach but now some 15 miles inland from the current sea boundary, 30 ft below ground level and 2o feet above the top of the chalk, when it promptly dropped 15 feet, together with an area of surrounding surface some 30ft across.

The cause was a large solution hole (a cavity or chamber usually formed by groundwater flow dissolving away the chalk, the roof of which had been repeatedly collapsing and working its way upwards over maybe tens of thousands of years until the weight of the loader gave it a kick up the proverbial).

The same thing happened to Silbury Hill. Well, with a bit of human 'help' in making the voids...

Silbury Hill: A last look inside - Current Archaeology

Cheers

Jan
 
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