Subsidence

Subsidence is like a sinking feeling. When the ground that we stand on sinks down, it's called subsidence. This usually happens when the water under the ground goes away, like after a drought or when people use too much water from the ground.

Imagine you have a big bowl full of water, and you put a ball inside the bowl. Now, take the ball out, and see how the water level goes down a little bit, because we took some of the water away with the ball. This is kind of like what happens underground. When we take too much water out of the ground, it goes down too, leaving a hole where the water was.

When the ground sinks down or settles, it can cause big problems for the things that are built on top of it, like houses, roads, and bridges. It can make them crack or even collapse, which can be very dangerous.

So it's important to be careful about how much water we use from the ground, and to make sure that we don't cause subsidence.