MASCOT, Tenn. (WVLT) - A Mascot family has looked for answers for months after a sinkhole formed on their property. Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation said it was formed back on Feb. 22.
They determined the cause to be from an old, inactive zinc mine that hasn’t been used since 1971.
That was always a concern of mine, growing up in an area honeycombed with shafts, tunnels and stopes from 90 years of copper mining.
ReplyDeleteNot much opens up on its own, but I always wondered what a moderate tremor would open up and swallow.
On the other hand, plenty of places to hide bodies.
http://www.geo.mtu.edu/KeweenawGeoheritage/CalumetGeosites/Under_Calumet.html
Funny what has been forgotten...
I doubt you could fill it with water, whatever you pumped in there would probably just disappear and the whole would never fill up, just jet bigger.
ReplyDeleteDepends on the mine and the area.
DeleteThe mines in Virginia City NV had to be continuously drained with massive Cornish pumps while they were in operation or they'd flood. After they shut down the mines all flooded, every one of them, and that's in a mountainous desert region.
My sinkhole doesn't hold water for long. I'd have to line it with something and then I would be afraid the weight of the water would cause a larger collapse. It would make a nice convenient fish spot.
ReplyDeleteWe had one up in East Texas. Filled with water quickly and then became an instant gator pit. We're nearly as bad as Florida in that any water source along the coastal swamps will have gators and cottonmouths in it.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if law requires that you be informed that there's an abandoned ZINC MINE under your freaking house?
ReplyDeleteSome of the old mining towns in the Mother Lode are built on top of miles of tunnels, and yeah, they do settle over time.
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