r/Norway 5d ago

Photos What the…?

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u/-Ekky 5d ago

Norwegian soil is very new from the ice age and is all held together by salt molecules. If one puts to much weight it will push out the salt molecules and it will turn into liquid. Many videos out there where you see buildings just starts floating out to the sea because someone either built to much weight on one place or removed to much mass from one place weakening the surrounding areas ability to hold the weight placed untop of it. its a constant issue they always have to consider when building roads of buildings anywhere in norway, especially close to a water source

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u/Mysterious-Dirt-8841 5d ago

Salt is absolutely not pushed out by weight on top, but rather flushed out by water and ground loose rigidity

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u/-Ekky 5d ago

You’re right some words got lost in my attempt of Norwegian to English transelation — the salt has already been leached out by groundwater long before building. What remains is a fragile clay structure that can look stable, but extra weight or excavation can trigger it to collapse and behave like liquid. So it’s not the weight pushing salt out, but weight can definitely accelerate the failure of already weakened ground.

But i must add that i have seen what i mentioned earlier happen.

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u/Mysterious-Dirt-8841 5d ago

On one of the photos it looks like it all happened around house, wondering about water outflow, we hoomans use a lot of water without even noticing. Car washing, plant watering and who knows where goes brown water form that house. Where go Pavement and roof drainage water?

1

u/-Ekky 5d ago

and one may have an unusuall high rainfall one season. There are drainage here and there but sometimes it cant catch it all or an alteration to the system may have taken place somewhere else. Many factors that may play into this indeed

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u/Mysterious-Dirt-8841 5d ago

Agree, on top off all you said, we're talking about years of soaking, decades maybe.

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u/Fair-Explorer4450 4d ago

Most likely started by the construction works. But the quick clay extended up to the area close to the house.