Buried stuff rising to the surface

[AlanB]

Not sure how to explain this question, and certainly not sure of the forum, but let me give some examples and see if it makes sense.

On my property, the previous owners felt that the proper way of getting rid of something was to throw it out back near a tree... Any tree

They must have had a glass factory somewhere near, and a beer bottle factory as well

Anyway, glass and debris continue to rise to the surface and then I pick it up and throw it away, or,,, maybe the surface is going down, leaving the glass, wire, steel at it's original height thereby coming to the top.

Wife puts the dog fence wire slightly buried across the gravel drive, it slowly comes exposed. Is the wire coming up? The gravel going down? The wire repulses the gravel so all the gravel runs away from the intrusive wire?

What is actually happening?

Certainly not going to change the world, but it is curious as all get out to me, there is one tree that I just keep a rake and a drilled bucket beside and every now and then I go out and pick up the glass, rake about a little to find the stuff lurking just under the surface, and pick up more, then leave it a bit, and when I come back (week or two) there will be more glass on the surface. (Maybe the broken glass fairies need somewhere to drop their stuff ) This has been going on now 3+ years so I doubt I am reaching the bottom of my glass mine anytime soon.

Luckily there is a steel mine at the next tree over, the latest thing to come up was a 3/8" steel plate about a foot square............ I hope to keep that area producing like that for a while. :laughing:

 

[brin]

" Tommy knockers, Tommy knockers, knocked last night and twice the night before "

From the Stephen King Movie....." The Tommy Knockers " in that movie it turned out to be a buried UFO with alien creatures who were coming back to life by sapping energy from humans...so be careful...in this day and age ya never know since so much of what used to be science fiction is now coming to pass...think Twilight Zone....:laughing::laughing::thumbsup:

 

[Wacky]

" Tommy knockers, Tommy knockers, knocked last night and twice the night before "

From the Stephen King Movie....." The Tommy Knockers " in that movie it turned out to be a buried UFO with alien creatures who were coming back to life by sapping energy from humans...so be careful...in this day and age ya never know since so much of what used to be science fiction is now coming to pass...think Twilight Zone....:laughing::laughing::thumbsup:

Yeah, just look at our Government:laughing:!

 

[Thomas]

Somewhat common those have heavy frozen/frost grounds,come spring stones,bones,wood,metal etc. appeal..also windy dry year...mother earth kicking back our rubbish.

 

[CurlyDave]

Many, many years ago I read an article which explained this kind of thing.

Essentially, if you have a collection of large objects mixed with small ones, there are many more ways for the small ones to fit under the large ones than vice-versa.

Everyday examples are cans of mixed nuts, where the large ones tend to be on top when you open the can, and the toolbox in your pickup, where large tools migrate to the top and small ones migrate down under the vibration of driving.

This is why rocks come to the surface in areas with freeze-thaw cycles.

The only problem with the theory is that some kind of vibration or other energy input is needed for this to happen. I have no idea where this is coming from in your case...

 

[2manyrocks]

Maybe it's just beneath a thin layer of dirt that is being washed off by rainfall?

After every rain, I see more rocks in the garden.

 

[tallyho8]

Regulations require the landfills here to be covered with 3 feet of packed clay. Nothing less will keep the fill from rising to the surface.

There is an old illegal 10 acre dump not too far away that was only covered with a few inches of soil. It is used as a stable for horses and many hundreds of yards of sand have been added to it to try to cover up the debris that keeps rising but this only delays it a short time.

The parish unknowingly built a road over a section of it 2 years ago that was 50' wide and 200' long and they had to spend an additional $300,000 digging out this area and disposing of the waste before proceeding. This unexpected delay set the project back two months.

 

[jimmyj]

Really big moles?

I hope some more good stuff comes up. Maybe a chest of pirate treasure!

 

[niemeyjt]

I think CurleyDave has identified the problem - I get the same with my muesli - oats and bran flakes at the beginning of the packet and the sugary bits at the end.

Sadly, the solution of shaking the packet of nuts / muesli wont work - but might a stone burier be a solution?

J

 

[SPYDERLK]

Many, many years ago I read an article which explained this kind of thing.

Essentially, if you have a collection of large objects mixed with small ones, there are many more ways for the small ones to fit under the large ones than vice-versa.

Everyday examples are cans of mixed nuts, where the large ones tend to be on top when you open the can, and the toolbox in your pickup, where large tools migrate to the top and small ones migrate down under the vibration of driving.

This is why rocks come to the surface in areas with freeze-thaw cycles.

The only problem with the theory is that some kind of vibration or other energy input is needed for this to happen. I have no idea where this is coming from in your case...

Freeze thaw cycles in the presence of gravity would qualify as a randomizing "vibration". As would traffic along the gravel drive.
larry

 

[Redbug]

Don't feel too bad. The people that lived on the land I now occupy were slobs, too. I have lived here 16 years and the glass keeps coming up. I usually see something shining and carefully pick it up and put in in a bucket I keep for just such things. I think the culture of the people is slowly changing. I have noticed the glass being replaced with fast food wrappers and plastics. They degrade in only one lifetime. Did you know the State Insect of South Carolina is the Litter Bug?

 

[niemeyjt]

The previous occupants here used the pond next to the house as a skip.

When it was dug out, I heaped up all the spoil and started sifting it with a screening bucket on the digger - I already have one heap of hardcore about four foot high - and that is with less than a quarter of the spoil screened.

J

 

[techwrtr2]

You need to bury the bodies deeper than you have been.

 

[CurlyDave]

The previous occupants here used the pond next to the house as a skip.

When it was dug out, I heaped up all the spoil and started sifting it with a screening bucket on the digger - I already have one heap of hardcore about four foot high - and that is with less than a quarter of the spoil screened.

J

Could you translate that into American English?

Somehow I think that skip might equal dump, but over here "hardcore" means pictures that are not family safe.

 

[niemeyjt]

Could you translate that into American English?

Somehow I think that skip might equal dump, but over here "hardcore" means pictures that are not family safe.

Skip - a waste disposal container - various sizes are available, 6 cubic yards is common - delivered and collected by lorry (truck:laughing.

Hardcore, as opposed to hard core:laughing:, is brick and other debris put in trenches and packed down before concrete goes in - is this what you would call rubble?

J

 

[CurlyDave]

That is exactly what I would call rubble, although it can also mean stones of various sizes. Generally from demolition of a building.

 

[20 20]

Up here we allways say we're growing rocks. Every year we have to pick rocks so that next years rock crop can give us more

 

[dmccarty]

Thankfully I don't have a dump. But our place had a road built right up the middle. Before the trees grew back in and shut down access people would come in a dump a little of this and that. Most of it was/is bottles and cans from people who drove in and out. Some was yard waste from the house up front. Somebody even dumped a tire.

I find old oil cans and such here and there from when the place was logged 70ish years ago but that is all. Thankfully.

When I worked on a farm as a teenage the owner would just dump our trash in a ravine near a barn. I never really understood WHY he did this. He had the farm but also lived in the city. We would travel out to the farm to work for a couple of days then head back home. He easily could have put the a bag or two of garbage in the truck and took it home. Instead we just tossed it in the ravine.

My kids school has a nice trail in the woods. We went for a walk on it a few weeks ago and the trail goes right over someones old farm dump. Old glass, tires, and metal. The land was logged over 15-20ish years ago best as I can tell from the trees. I could not see an old house or barn nearby but I am sure there was a foundation close to us.

Later,
Dan

 

[MicroPilot]

Many, many years ago I read an article which explained this kind of thing.

Essentially, if you have a collection of large objects mixed with small ones, there are many more ways for the small ones to fit under the large ones than vice-versa.
...
This is why rocks come to the surface in areas with freeze-thaw cycles.....

Except over the eons wouldn't all the rocks that are going to, have already come to the surface?

 

[studor]

Except over the eons wouldn't all the rocks that are going to have already come to the surface?

No -- because other natural forces such as glaciers,erosion, earthquakes, volcanoes etc.(and sometimes heavy equipment!) keep burying them and moving them around. In a climate with freeze and thaw, things buried in the frost level move quite a bit within short enough spans to notice. At my place, the previous owners wanted to test the theory by creating numerous "back forty" dumps, buring old buildings etc. -- the theory works. They also wanted to test the theory that objects embedded in trees stay at the same height -- that one is true too judging from the trees I have that have embedded steel wheels, fence wire and pieces of equipment