One by one, homes in California subdivision are sinking

We act as if we have been here millions of years, unchanged.

Nope... the earth moves, lives, breaths.. she might not be a person, but if you disagree with her, you end up the one changing everything, not her.

How anyone can think that taking something out of the ground, does not create a deficit which equilibrium will remedy, is beyond me... Probably sits on a concrete foundation and thinks it will be there forever.

it could be a number of things, however. If it's on a hill, then it's on unstable ground to start with.. the actual way mountains are formed is by the earth fighting itself and bunching up.

How any human brain can think less than 500 years of building monstrous buildings on fragile land is not going to crumble over time, is an hilariously scary sign of how limited we actually think.

Especially when we tend to build on mineral rich areas, which are only so because of the turbulent nature of the earth it rests on.

Didn't matter so much when we live off the land, but now we live on the land, it comes as a surprise when we find that we're not quite as good at it any more...

And we want to colonise other planets, Oh lel.

Originally posted by pheonix358
Although it is also obvious that we are taking the oil out faster that Mother Nature can replace it.

Nothing is replacing the oil.

Once we take it out, it's gone for ever. Hence it's not a renewable resource.

???

Maybe in a few billion years from now, we'll be oil. But until then, nothing is putting oil back in the ground where we take it from.

reply to post by winofiend


The two articles I cite (plus there are countless others if you google it) state otherwise. They say that oil is produced naturally by the earth and I believe it. The idea that oil is depleting from the earth as we use it was a "Big Oil" scam from the start in order to continue driving up prices under the fear that we are running out, and the green folks push it as well because they'd rather we use cleaner energy. Think about it...Supply and Demand...if demand is high and the supply is low, the price will skyrocket. And despite this news that oil naturally regenerates, the price is still high. It's funny how this kind of news should be main stream but yet you can only find it on alternative news sources, because "Big Oil" doesn't want everyone to know this, and neither do the green folks.

Personally, I'm still unsure where I stand on the issue of Fracking because of the methane that escapes into the atmosphere during the process, but I do believe it's safe to say, Oil will continue to be under our feet no matter how much we take out of the ground.

On another note...you mentioned that we build on a hill that is sure to have geological change over time, but these homes sat fine without any problems for 30 years, then all of a sudden...the whole neighborhood starts crumbling away over two months time. That's something to think about. I don't think that can be compared with how mountains are formed!

reply to post by Rezlooper


I live in the area, and I can probably clear some things up. First, it's definitely not from Wells or fossil fuels as we don't pump anything out from under us. There are no gas or oil deposits and no Wells. The neighborhood is by clear lake, which isn't clear at all and is polluted with mercury and non native algae blooms. The ground water isn't safe here, so we take our water from the blue lakes or hidden valley lake not far away. The lake is polluted due to gold mining. Mount Konokti is right next to the neighborhood and is a volcano that is supposedly dormant. There has also been some seismic activity in the area recently as well. So, it's not from drilling for fossil fuels or water. It could be old gold mines collapsing, but I doubt it. Personally, I think the volcano is becoming active. For about a hundred mile radius, ground water has been drying up in the valleys, and popping up on the hills. There are active geysers near there that are becoming less active or dormant while new water appears to be popping up on higher ground. I'm not a scientist, but with all this strange activity surrounding a supposedly dormant volcano, I think it's probably not as dormant as they thought.

Originally posted by Alchemst7
Found a news clip about this. Just to give some perspective of whats happening

Thank you for clip.

reply to post by gdfbacchus


That's what I was saying as well, that is probably wasn't ground collapse because of drill holes and mine shafts. When first reading the story and they said the community was near the dormant volcano, that was my first suspicion to...that it may be related to the volcano. Thanks for the post.

reply to post by Rezlooper


Also, if you take 1 look at just about any street in the city of Clearlake you will see that they are ridiculously full of potholes, etc. If I was at home, I'd post a pic of the hole in the street in front of my house

There is no statistical rise in anything sinking I believe, just an increase in humans on the planet to observe damage.

Its important to note the phenomenon noted in your post is different from the other sink hole stories. In normal sinkholes its simply due to limestone erosion from nature or from over pumping of water out of the aquifer.

CA isn't on limestone so this is totally different than what you see in the SE USA and mexico.

I don't know what causes the ones in CA.

Thanks for posting

The calif hit and run property developers.

Clear and fill a area then build a bunch of homes.
After all the homes are sold file for bankruptcy (so the company is not liable for the homes any longer.) and go out of business as a company and form a new company and do the same thing all over again.

If they ever have a major 7.5 earthquake in southern calif there will be major ground collapse under many homes in southern calif

The ground is hot lava.

It's something I observed in California, that after a season of weeks of rain, the fault lines are lubricated and tend to move and the result is some of the bigger earthquakes. Apparently the water at Lake County didn't absorb in enough because of that volcanic layer, so the water starts flowing underground in rivers, and that groundwater erodes the topsoil layers.

So there may be a magma chamber that is pushing its way around. Downside, they are living near a California volcano. Upside, if it is truly dormant there might be gold or precious jewels in those magma pathways which can be mined and those poor people can get better homes somewhere else.

I also reside in Lake County. The latest information is that subsidence is caused by leaking water lines that belong to the county. It seems that hundreds of thousands of gallons have disappeared without anyone noticing until now. On the other hand, this may not be the final word. A leaking pipe has been found, but it may not be the sole cause. This subdivision has had the reputation of being bad luck since it was built. I'm told the original developer died before going to prison for fraud. The entire development remained vacant for several years due to lack of water service, while the builder was bankrupt and out of business. The developer was supposed to provide a club house with swimming pool. Unfortunately the club was at the bottom of the hill, with about a 300 foot climb to reach the homes. The pool is a big hole in the ground, unfinished. The club house was finally sold to another company for other uses. Meanwhile there is a lot of finger pointing. The insurance companies claim they are not liable, and the county says it's not their fault. There are some who think the damage is caused by seismic activity forcing ground water to the surface. Others wonder if may the place was built on an Indian graveyard. No kidding.

reply to post by barticle


Thanks for that info. Always good to hear from those living near the real story when news is posted here at ATS.