OXFORD, N.S. - A sinkhole at a popular Oxford park is continuing to get bigger.
“It looks like it has grown quite a bit since yesterday,” Oxford resident Shaun Whalen said Friday. “This thing has swallowed entire trees. They’re gone, it’s like they were chewed up.”
Representatives from the provincial Energy and Mines Department are continuing to monitor the sinkhole and are continuing to stress that people stay clear of the park.
The park has been barricaded since a small sinkhole in the Lions Park got much bigger earlier this week.
Security tape surrounds the perimeter of the park and there have been officials from the town on site reminding people that it’s dangerous to enter.
Amy Tizzard, regional geologist with Energy and Mines, said the sinkhole is still a developing situation. There is no indication of when it’s going to stabilize. She reassured people that the rest of the town is on a different geological formation and will not be impacted.
She cannot speculate on the danger to the Lions Community Centre or businesses across the street.
“It’s still a developing situation that we are continuing to monitor very closely,” Tizzard said.
Earlier this week, Tizzard said the park is situated on top of a gypsum deposit. That deposit is fairly limited to the area around the park and a few kilometres to the west.
She is asking that if anyone notices other incidents of subsidence or the development of additional sinkholes to contact the department.
Where the sink hole is located is part of a formation known as the Windsor Group that occurs throughout the province in places like Windsor, Falmouth, Cape Breton and elsewhere. Gypsum is part of that geological feature and it’s a mineral that’s prone to sinkhole development because it’s a soft rock that can dissolve through either groundwater or surface runoff.
Twitter: @ADNdarrell
