Residents of a new housing development at Maidstone in Kent, southern England, have expressed concern after a sinkhole opened up near their properties on Sunday 25 October 2020. The sinkhole does not directly impact the homes, but is in an area earmarked for further house-construction, raising doubts about such development. This is the latest in a series of sinkhole incidents in the Maidstone area, including one which opened up beneath a reservoir used to provide water for domestic use in September, which required a major re-routing of water suplies in the area, in order to ensure that residents were not left without water.
Sinkholes are generally caused by water eroding soft limestone or unconsolidated deposits from beneath, causing a hole that works its way upwards and eventually opening spectacularly at the surface. Where there are unconsolidated deposits at the surface they can infill from the sides, apparently swallowing objects at the surface, including people, without trace.
Much of Kent lies on chalk, soft Cretaceous limestone, which is particularly prone to sinkhole formation. This chalk is typically overlain by Palaeocene and Eocene clay deposits, which seal the chalk off from the surface, offering a measure of protection against erosion, but this can be disturbed by Human activities, such as road or house building, enabling water from rainfall to seep through to the soft chalk, and leading to sinkhole formation.
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