• Question: What do you think caused the sinkholes in China??

    Asked by custardcreams to Andrew, Emma, Marianne on 24 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 22 Jun 2010:

      Hello again custardcreams,

      I don’t know. I’m sure you’ve already read up about sinkholes and know that there are lots of causes (including erosion, weather system changes and human activity)

      Do you have a conspiracy theory you’d like to share?

      Giant underground worms
      Vast network of nuclear bunkers being built by Chinese
      Something tunnelling out like in doctor Who

    • Photo: Andrew Maynard

      Andrew Maynard answered on 22 Jun 2010:

      Good afternoon custardcreams,

      I honestly don’t know the answer to that one – but I’ll do some research and get back to you in the comments below. Got to dash now for a meeting!

    • Photo: Marianne Baker

      Marianne Baker answered on 24 Jun 2010:

      I have to admit custardcreams, I don’t even know what you mean! Sorry!
      Let’s see if someone has written an enlightening answer…

Comments

  • Photo: custardcreams

    custardcreams commented on :

    haha ok Andrew Leitch i have to agree with the doctor who comment!!!!!!
    I don’t really have any idea about what caused them.
    Thank you for your answers.

  • Photo: Andrew

    Andrew commented on :

    Hi again custardcreams,

    Well, I spend some time on Google, and was astounded that I couldn’t find any good information on the cause! It seems that journalists want to write about the appearance of the sinkholes, but it’s much harder to get good information on what’s actually going on – which is rather disappointing. So I still know as much as you do!

  • Photo: Marianne

    Marianne commented on :

    Interesting.

    I wonder if this is perhaps related to the ‘disappearing lake’ incident that happened in Russia?

    I think that was caused by a kind of underground landslide; this opened up a big cave and the lake flowed into it.

    Perhaps it’s seismic activity (movement of tectonic plates) that makes space underground, so holes appear on the surface as the ground redistributes.
    That’d be my guess anyways – shame we don’t have a geologist!