Wow--Turkey, mine subsidence and cat-capes, all in one post! I'm impressed.
My grandparents lived in an area of Michigan's Upper Peninsula that was riddled with iron (taconite) mines, including several within/under the city limits of Iron Mountain (nothing like having your taconite within easy reach).
One day in 1940, a pit that had been dug under the north side of the city collapsed. It swallowed up a number of houses, a large section of road (including a few cars), and almost got my grandfather, who was running errands in town that day. According to him, his car was one of the last to drive over the pit area before it collapsed (no word on whether he had any particularly heavy objects in the trunk that day).
So now Iron Mountain has a lake within its city limits; they've stocked it with fish, and you can rent row boats. The lake is still known as The Pit, though.
Hope that Bear's Retreat hangs in there for a couple more centuries at least... but you might want to keep a rowboat on hand, just in case .
Sister, I seem to recall that your house was at the top of a local hill. If this is correct, then you should be fairly resistant to mine subsistence problems. This is because you're going to have more rock between you and the hollow spaces.
Take a look at the locations of those other places that have subsided due to Montour #8. Are they all at much lower elevations? I'm not saying that you don't need insurance, just hoping for the best.
One of the things that drew me to mining engineering in college was the way that miners uncover the mystery of things under the earth. We see only the surface, most of reality is hidden from us.
Carl
P.S. Seattle is treating the Superbowl in a very blase manner. It's from all the Scandinavians who settled the area, I think.
Alas, my brother, we're at the bottom of the hill, not the top.
Darn.
Pittsburgh is NOT being blase about the Superbowl.
Pittsburgh is being INSANE about the Superbowl.
OK, I've checked the building I live in. It's a bit difficult to get a fix on those maps (the edge of Wilkensberg and 376 are about the only landmarks), but it looks like I'm not sitting on undermined land. I am quite surprised, however, that there is a mine in Pittsburgh itself. It's not like Pittsburgh expanded to engulf its suburbs; it's been this size for quite a while. Ahwell, it's not like I own the building. Good luck with your mine!
We here in Shaler are not over a mining area (which is rare) but we do have the dubious honor of having our house built on top of red clay. Which, we were told, is much more common than folks around these parts are aware. The settling of said red clay has left us with 8 piers drilled down to bedrock for support, as well as 6 wall anchors. There are probably some additional piers in our future as well. I wish we did live over a mine, at least we could plan and cover our losses. Beats worrying ever time you see a new crack in your wall or ceiling.
Ohmigod you're in Pittsburgh.
I'm gonna be in Pittsburgh the weekend of Feb 17. Do you think we could do a blogging and bagels thang on the 18th over in Sewickley (across from the yarn store)?
Cat-eating poncho! That's fantastic. And such a stylish blue color.
I love how animals respond to these head-eating entities--a roomate's dog once had to wear a cone for a few weeks, and if we got laughing too hard at her, she'd push the cone up against the wall so we couldn't see her face. We felt guilty about her obvious embarassment, but we just couldn't. stop. laughing.
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