Intriguing ground structure

[duncanelliot]

Hi there,

Does anybody know what kind of ground structure is located at: W 0 29' 1.862" N 51 31' 5.07"

OS grid ref= TQ055 808

I want to know how deep this is and why it exists. You can get a good view on Google Earth.

Many thanks.


Duncan

 

[TerryScan]

It appears to be simply a small pond. Do you have information indicating otherwise?

 

[eric1037]

Maybe an irrigation pond? Looks like there may be agriculture in the area.

 

[dgillette]

Doubt they irrigate much in that area. Karst around there? Old quarry? Borrow pit?

 

[GeoPaveTraffic]

I agree with dgillette, not related to irrigation. Given the number of cannels/rivers, I doubt it is Karst. My guess and it is only a guess, is that it is a quarry of some some sort that has filled.

 

[duncanelliot]

The area used to be riddled with brick-making factories (150-75 years ago). They use to extract the Ldn clay from the surrounding area, process it and transport it via the canal.
There is evidence of quarries around the area. I think what we are looking at is too small to be a quary, furthermore it is perfectly round. COuld it be an old mine-shaft leading to underground extraction mines?

Duncan

 

[dgillette]

Unless the rock/soil is very tight, it would have been tough to dewater a mine surrounded by water like that.

Could this be like those crop circles that space aliens left?

 

[duncanelliot]

So do we agree that it is an ancient open quarry/old mine shaft/Karst/pond/ borrow pit...? Could you please rank the laters in terms of likelyhood.

THanks

 

[dgillette]

How about this?:

That's very flat country, and it appears that the land around the pond is higher; and immediately east of there is a boat docking facility. Maybe material exc'd to build the facility was placed there, but they didn't fill in the space in the middle for some reason, perhaps because they wanted a pond in the middle of the park. A short way to the northwest, there are some borrow pits along the M25 motorway, and their sides look roughly similar to this pond.

I'm more intrigued by the very long, narrow boats, which I presume are for use on narrow canals, such as we don't have many of here in the break-away colonies.

duncanelliot: What got you interested in this thing in the first place? This could be a whole new semi-social hobby, instead of train spotting or geocaching, satphotolysing!

 

[duncanelliot]

Humm,

dgillette, thanks for your insight, very usefull. I am not sure that this hole was created as a result of the neighbouring land being artificially raised. The reason being that there is a sign with a life buoy attached to it, it reads "Danger Deep Water".

No I am not a train-spotter, nor is there such a void in my life that I feel the need to busy myself by satphotolysing the land adjacent to the M-25.

What you refer to as long narrow boats are commonly known as barges in the UK, in fact the marina where you can see these boat is a Packet Boat marina. I assume that a Packet Boat is a kind of barge.

Thanks for your contribution.

Duncan

 

[eric1037]

The reason being that there is a sign with a life buoy attached to it, it reads "Danger Deep Water".

Wow. You can see that on the sat image? You must have a better verion of Google Earth than mine.

 

[duncanelliot]

No I don't have a supped up version of Google earth. I went there and took pictures.

Duncan

 

[bimr]

Maybe a bomb crater?

Perhaps if you located a map that shows geological features, it would tell you.

Since you visited the site, I will ask a few questions. It looks like the area is a park. What is the walkway around the hole and what are the structures on the walkway. It looks like the structures may be lights or signs or something. Have you inquired at the barge terminal?

 

[JasonG]

The best source of information in these cases is elderly locals. Or, if you're lucky enough to find one, a local history book.

You should also check historic aerials and topos if you haven't already.