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> Most are unlikely to emit toxic or greenhouse gasses but they're nevertheless still dangerous because they're often very deep vertical shafts that a person co
by mschuster91 2y ago
> Most are unlikely to emit toxic or greenhouse gasses but they're nevertheless still dangerous because they're often very deep vertical shafts that a person could stumble across and fall in.
That's a problem in Germany as well [1] - particularly in NRW, where most of Germany's mining activity is concentrated for centuries. About two or three times a week an old shaft collapses somewhere in Germany, leading to sinkholes - there's tens of thousands old mine shafts in the country and information on a lot of the legal ones got lost in one of the two world wars, and on top of these come quite the lot of illegal operations. Usually the damage is in some remote area, some forest or whatnot, but in some rare cases, entire buildings vanish or have to be condemned.
[1] https://www.stern.de/gesellschaft/bergbauschaeden--zehntausende-alte-stollen-sind-einsturzgefaehrdet-7937914.html https://www.stern.de/gesellschaft/bergbauschaeden--zehntause...
- creshal 2y agoAnd for a long time, it was legal to have fun constructs like "so the mine entrance goes horizontal for a bit until the main shaft starts right under the local orphanage", so sinkholes can be all sorts of fun.
- HdS84 2y agoIn Mendig (Eifel) there is an enormous mine for millstones which was in us for the whole middle age until the 19th century or so. Most people just dug down from their Celler and the whole city stands on enormous caverns.
- saalweachter 2y agoAs an American, I tend to think that D&D contrivances like "everyone's basement is connected to a massive labyrinth" are unrealistic, but ...
- HdS84 2y agoHaha good catch. I actually did some dsa campaigns inspired by these caves. They are super still, cold and eerie. Most of the shafts are filled today but you can see how dangerous they where. Small steps, without any guardrails, often slippery because water leaks in die to cracks in the rock. Also, many caverns are big, because they excavated the stone but the access tunnels are super small and steep. Here are some pictures https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=f23c15b34ae4d7a1&q=lavakeller+mendig&udm=2&fbs=AEQNm0A6bwEop21ehxKWq5cj-cHa02QUie7apaStVTrDAEoT1GiVzOBBcEbsoZQwi7osVtOt14TuvywiCQwEDdjn352nsZleooGBRFgsZ8q34fIGxmKtJTvLlldxHBaRp1FNswbP3Zte7XrAPAfxv4OvthrCfBKWuDPyCjrwgjWHKTMZka2i43dPKZnFu4kprjDIpHHTQEMO&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwikzafgtpKKAxWnVaQEHUIdAqEQtKgLegQIFRAB&biw=412&bih=699&dpr=2.63 https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=f23c15b34ae4d7a1&q=lav...