Just when you thought it was safe to come out of the water

Courtesy of Rob at Eine kleine Nichtmusik, here is something new to worry about. (Well, it happened on Feb. 20 but it's new to me.)

The mind boggles and refuses to believe what the eyes tell it: a 330-foot-deep hole suddenly opens up in the street? Look at the width of the hole and think how tall 330 feet is, and imagine a column of stone that size. How can that amount of stone suddenly disappear? Where did it go? Impossible; particularly ludicrous, almost insulting, is the official suggestion that recent rains washed it away. Have you ever watched a stone being eroded away by rainfall? Neither have I. Somehow it just doesn't happen.

So presumably it didn't happen. I presume that this is a 330-foot-deep cavern which has been forming since hundreds or thousands of years, and whose roof collapsed two weeks ago. That such a thing can happen is more logical than blaming it on yesterday's rainfall, but the explanation is hardly reassuring.

Do you know what's underneath your house?

In other news Noorster has found a very moving YouTube clip on fathering. See it and weep.