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GPR sinkhole alarm

ground-penetrating radar
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If you live in an area with a high or fluctuating water- table, conditions may have already obviated your need to deselect the option of having a basement.

That does not, however, prevent Ma Nature (or your local water & sewer utility) from suddenly creating one for you.

The GPR alarm will join your paranoia constellation (smoke, carbon monoxide, radon, natural gas, and intrusion alarms) and monitor the ground under your home's foundation. Any changes, and it'll let you know it's time to decamp.

It will also alert in free fall, just in case you're too sound asleep to scream on your way down the sinkhole.

lurch, Apr 25 2013

Needs more bungee Guatemala_20Sinkhole_20Bungee
(Shameless self-promotion) [theleopard, Apr 29 2013]

NASA reads Halfbakery, spends taxpayer $$$$$$$$ http://www.nasa.gov...-foresee-sinkholes/
May also be able to spot submerged Corvettes [lurch, Mar 07 2014]

[link]






       How long does it take a sinkhole to form anyways ?
FlyingToaster, Apr 25 2013
  

       Depends on the depth of the ravel zone, the method of subsoil transport, type of material...   

       A shallow cavern collapse could have you down in a matter of seconds with no warning (but a cavern like that should be detectable pre-build, or at least with an alarm-pre-install survey), but I think (there doesn't seem to be lots of data on this) if you could actually monitor subsoil radar opacity/reflectance, you should get at least minutes, perhaps a few hours, of warning. Water, of course, being the biggest confounder - it blinds the radar and can rapidly move soil, so it's kind of like watching for polar bears in a blizzard.
lurch, Apr 25 2013
  

       I was just contemplating a GPR-related service: once or twice a year check the homeowner's property for sinkhole formation.
FlyingToaster, Apr 25 2013
  

       "Goodbye latent defects, who could hang the blame on you?" ~ apologies to Mick Jagger.
Would be difficult to prove to the new proud owners of a large hole that you had no prior knowledge.
4whom, Apr 25 2013
  

       <swisscheese tag>   

       (At this location was an anno by [21Quest], asking if he hadn't made an annotation here. This annotation subsequently disappeared in the [21Q] account bashup/disaster of Jan 2015)   

       </swisscheese tag>   

       I didn't see one; if I happened to clobber it, that certainly wasn't my intention.
lurch, Apr 25 2013
  

       Average number of deaths per year in US homes from sinkholes: 0.03.   

       Number of houses in the US: 125,000,000.   

       Minimum likely cost of GPR alarm, per house: $100.   

       Likely service life of GPR alarm: 25 years.   

       Total cost to protect all homes: $12,500,000,000.   

       Total cost per life saved: $16,600,000,000.
MaxwellBuchanan, Apr 25 2013
  

       [Max...] cetacean needed...
I still stick by the fact that you will not successfully sell a home (without legal recourse) in US of A unless you can prove you had no prior knowledge of any latent defect. More is less, in this case...apologies to Mies van der Rohe.
4whom, Apr 25 2013
  

       //cetacean needed//   

       From USA Today (OK, so it's late).   

       "Randazzo has made a career studying sinkholes, first as a professor at the University of Florida and now through his company, Geohazards, which analyzes potential sinkholes and seals them up.   

       He only recalls two other people who died because of a sinkhole in the 40 years he's been involved with the geological phenomenon. And in both those cases -- both in Florida -- Randazzo said the people were drilling water wells and triggered the sinkholes to open underneath them."   

       Neither of these two other people died in their homes. Hence, we are left with one fatality due to a sub-home sinkhole, in 40 years, or 0.025/year.
MaxwellBuchanan, Apr 25 2013
  

       Nope, not citation, cetacean...
4whom, Apr 25 2013
  

       I am thinking blew whale, 'cause he needed the job.
4whom, Apr 25 2013
  

       A medium-sized cetacean is on its way to you by UPS. I took the liberty of allowing you to pay the delivery charges. His name is Gonville, and he enjoys classical music and krill (mainly krill).
MaxwellBuchanan, Apr 25 2013
  

       The over-arching principle is that you cannot offload an asset if you are aware of some claim against the asset or some defect in the asset that could either reduce the value of the asset or incur cost to the buyer to return the asset to the (at least) purchase price. This is one of those scenarios, fire alarms are not
4whom, Apr 25 2013
  

       So, you're saying you won't take the damn whale?
MaxwellBuchanan, Apr 25 2013
  

       [Max...], not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but the last time I needed a cetacean the pot plant said: "Oh no, not again!"
4whom, Apr 25 2013
  

       Well, I'm dumbstruck. Do you have any idea how much bubblewrap it takes to mail a Northern Right Whale? Have you any conception of the lengths I had to go to, to get the bubblewrap company to charge it to your name? And have you ever tried to arrange collection of a large aquatic mammal by motorcycle courier at 1am in East Anglia?
MaxwellBuchanan, Apr 25 2013
  

       [Max...] do you perhaps have a southern right whale on hand, easier to ship ( in fact they tend to ship themselves). just give me the tag code. I do enough of nothing to watch for tagged whales.
4whom, Apr 25 2013
  

       Now you tell me. I've got a bloody plague of Southern Rights. Started with just one which I won in a late-night game of cribbage. Then the man at the krill shop said he could get me another one cheap from a friend, and that it would keep the first one company. Definitely another female, he said, definitely. Bastard. Do you have any idea how fecund Southern Rights are? Three went to friends (now mostly ex-friends); two went to a West-End restaurant (endless paperwork). But did it stop there? Did it buggery. And do you know the price of krill in East Anglia? AND the mess they leave. You have NO idea. Don't talk to me about Southern Rights unless you've walked a mile in my galoshes.
MaxwellBuchanan, Apr 25 2013
  

       //I've got a bloody plague of Southern Rights. Started with just one which I won in a late-night game of cribbage.//   

       A 'plague' might be overstating things a bit although they are on the largish size. I don't think it's possible to get more than 29 in a cribbage game.
AusCan531, Apr 26 2013
  

       //A 'plague' might be overstating things a bit//   

       Au contraire. 'Plague' is the collective noun for Southern Right whales, like an 'exaltation of larks' (which, now that I think of it, would be a good tagline) or a 'bicker of eels'.
MaxwellBuchanan, Apr 26 2013
  

       //unless you've walked a mile in my galoshes.   

       Obviously the recession has bitten deeper than I thought, if you've had to lay off the whale valet.
not_morrison_rm, Apr 26 2013
  

       [4whom] - //you cannot offload an asset if you are aware of [...] some defect [...] that could [...] incur cost to the buyer[.]//   

       My property is in the USA. The city wants to build a railroad here, the county wants to build an airport here, the state wants to raise the taxes on this parcel so they can bulldoze it for an Olympic venue, the federal government says it's ok for me to live here as long as I don't use any electricity or own any metal that might disrupt the National Security Aardvark's new operation just over the hill, the US Air Force wants to use it as a bombing range, and so does North Korea.   

       The fact that it might just suddenly take a down elevator to a strata laid on in the Older Dryas may just be a feature, not a defect. As long as I don't go fossil-chasing with it, anyway.   

       [Max] - I have several bottles of krill oil on my desk, but I prefer that they are not opened until they are beyond smelling range, so please send me none of your finny mammalia. I can, if you wish, forward your contact info to a krill-oil vendor possessed of exceeding drive and little integrity...
lurch, Apr 26 2013
  

       // finny mammalia//   

       Either you are referring to Finny Mammalia, the celebrated Austrian yodeller, or you are mistaken. The appendages of baleen whales are known as "flukes" (for the tail), "flippers" (for the two fins at the front), and the "pennant" or "tumicle" for the so-called 'dorsal fin'. In toothed whales, the tail is again a "fluke", whilst the forward fins are known as "hams" or "paws"; there is no dorsal "fin", only a series of bumps known as "posts".
MaxwellBuchanan, Apr 28 2013
  

       //an utter bitch. (In Anglish, would that be "uttre"?)//   

       Preish the thought.
MaxwellBuchanan, Apr 29 2013
  

       (Oh, and upon reflection, I have come to the supposition that your vocabulary of appendages on aquatic exotherms are calques of the Monarch's tongue, derived (as usual) from the meristem of your ample imagination. Phbtfbtftphttpftphttps.)
lurch, Apr 29 2013
  

       I hate to appear contravicinal, but whales are undoubtedly endotherms. Perhaps you are thinking of sharks?
MaxwellBuchanan, Apr 29 2013
  

       //utter... uttre//   

       from the French: "outrez" - "grumblingly pedantic".
FlyingToaster, Apr 29 2013
  
      
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