Some residents of St. Albans had to evacuate their homes due to the recent appearance of a sinkhole that measured 66-foot wide. The event twisted stomachs, drove imaginations at great heights and relinquished deepest childhood nightmares, warranting a deeper look into the fear of sinkholes.
The recent sinkhole in St. Albans has been a cause for concern for some of the residents, who up until now are not allowed to return to their homes due to safety reasons.
According to the Hertfordshire County Council, they are currently looking at determining other possible sinkhole sites near the area.
Sinkholes are typical in places where the rock beneath the land surface is carbonate rock, limestone, salt beds or those that can be dissolved by the circulating groundwater. Hollow land formations and spaces are created as the rocks dissolve into the water.
One of the dramatic features of sinkholes is that it starts off as an intact land until the underground caverns become too large. In cases where there is a lack of adequate support for the land atop the spaces, the surface abruptly collapses. The height of sinkholes may range from tiny (less than one foot deep) to enormous (more than 100 feet), and the places where it can happen may include house or road locations.
Sinkhole shapes may also vary, from saucer-shaped to vertical walls. Other sinkholes may turn into ponds as it can collect water as well.
Sinkholes do not have a naturally-occurring drainage, all the rainwater that it caught remains inside and commonly drains into the subsurface.
Fearing sinkholes may look like it is an instinctive response, but the truth is, it is actually a learned survival method. Being scared of the thought that the ground might swallow people started during infancy. At first, babies may look as if they don't exhibit fear when crawling onto a glass floor above a drop, but in reality, their heart rate actually increases. As the babies master the act of crawling, they hold back at the drop edge because they have learned to relate their actions to what they see.
People are prompted to respond when there is a sudden disappearance of what has been present in a particular location, such as a pavement. "Filtering out unchanging stimuli and focussing on difference helps us spot potential predators or prey," reported Dr. Daniel Glaser, director of Science Gallery at King's College in London.
The relationship between what is perceived and what is performed can have bizarre physical impacts. Just think about that strange sensation of stepping onto an escalator that is not working, a jolt forward may not be unusual in these cases.
