Canada Disaster

[Ian]

Jeri, this was terrible was'nt it.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2970705/Family-die-as-hole-swallows-house.html

[John S]

OMG! That's just dreadful.

[Jericoke]

Yeah, it's been all over the news here, of course.

The rumour is that the family was watching the Montreal Canadiens beat the Pittsburgh Penguins on TV when it happened... the last thing they saw was their team finishing an unlikely come from behind win.

(The Montreal Canadiens are the 16th ranked NHL hockey team, and the Pittsburgh Penguins are the Stanley Cup champions... expected to roll right past the Canadiens... so as far as last sights to see, it would be up there  with watching your favourite driver win a race after qualifying 20th)

[cosworth151]

Here in Appalachia, we frequently have large sink holes. They come from long abandoned coal mines collapsing. At least they usually give some warning, some sign that a collapse is coming.

[Jericoke]

Here in Appalachia, we frequently have large sink holes. They come from long abandoned coal mines collapsing. At least they usually give some warning, some sign that a collapse is coming.

Most of Quebec is on the 'Canadian Shield', a giant expanse of continental rock scraped clean by glaciers in the last ice age.  What happened as they melted, giant piles of sediment built up, forming the 'land' people live on.  Because there are so many lakes and rivers, the land is constantly eroding.

I'm surprised this sort of thing doesn't happen more often, but perhaps people are just starting to build up in areas, forgetting why the area was never built before.