GEOLOGY NEWS -

 

CALIFORNIA HOUSES SINKING INTO THE GROUND

 

 

A slow motion disaster is taking place in Lake County, 100 miles north of San Francisco, California, where houses are collapsing into the sinking ground, with no apparent explanation.

 

Eight homes have been abandoned and  ten more are under notice of evacuation on a hilltop overlooking Clear Lake and Mount Konocti volcano.

 

Unlike Florida sinkholes that collapse homes in an instant, the gradual sinking of the surface in Lake County varies between a few inches and several feet each day.  Officials blame water rising to the surface, but this area suffers from water shortage.  

 

Lake County was shaped by earthquake fault movement and volcanic explosions that helped create the Coast Ranges of California.  Area groundwater sometimes makes its way to the surface then subsides. Many natural hot springs and geysers receded underground in the early 1900s and have since been tapped for geothermal power.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/sinking-california-homes-2013-5