Fancy going potholing ?

Image by Simon Hathaway - yes it is me, but look at those glasses...was taken a while ago...

Potholes have been in the news today, and for the last few days.
The snow, which has been in the news so much is giving way to a thaw, and revealing a damaged road surface. Been out this morning and saw quite a few new pot holes, also a collapsed wall near the centre of the village (which might have been because a car hit it rather than freeze-thaw)

I also heard via Twitter and a contact of mine, of a freak accident in Huddersfield involving a double decker bus and a section of paving, which had come loose during the period when the snow was lying. This catapulted up as the bus passed, and caused several people on the bus to be injured.

There is likely to be a huge repair bill to get the roads back into shape.

A BBC NEWS section gives a starter, with some useful images. It would be interesting to discuss with students (who have been given the statistics on temperatures and other weather data in advance) why they think that the situation is particularly bad this year.

Freeze-thaw action is a process that will be familiar to those students who have studied periglacial processes, or cold environments.

Also remember that potholes can be found in the bed of rivers - there's a lot of potholes around...
The image is of me down some random pot hole at Stony Middleton in the Peak District.

Comments