eli5: what happens to the areas that contain water and oil when we pump it all to the surface, why are there not sinkholes everywhere?

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eli5: what happens to the areas that contain water and oil when we pump it all to the surface, why are there not sinkholes everywhere?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

It does happen with water being pumped from wells. California is a classic example with some areas subsiding by 1 foot per year according to the USGS. There are some great pics on Google showing how much the land has fallen.
Usually it’s not noticed as everything sinks over a large area and it’s not usually as dramatic as feet per year. So unless you have a fixed point that can’t sink that you can see the change against it’s hard to tell.

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