Californian Road Swells-Up as If an Arrakis Sandworm Went Underneath It

In more extreme cases, we’ve seen large portions of roads collapse into gaping sinkholes. This happens when the earth beneath caves in leaving nothing to support the weight of the road and everything that goes on it. Again, perfectly explainable, even though a little harder to prevent.

But this phenomenon happening in California has everyone baffled. The Vasquez Canyon Road in California started swelling on Thursday, November 19, when drivers started signaling the event to the California Highway Patrol.

Over the course of one week, but mostly during the last three days, a 200-foot stretch of the road has risen by more than 15 feet, leaving everybody wondering what exactly happened. No earthquakes had been registered in the area - at least not big enough to cause anything like this - and there were also no heavy rainstorms.

A team of UCLA geology students and their professor named Jeremy Boyce are at the scene and are trying to make sense of the situation. Speaking to CBS Los Angeles, Boyce said, “When we think about geology, we think about processes that happen over millions and billions of years, so the opportunity to bring students out and see something happening over a scale of hours gives them the idea that not only does geology take forever, it can also happen almost instantaneously.”

Obviously, the road is now closed until the situation is cleared and repairs can begin. Until then, people will probably start bombarding us with all sorts of explanations, but we’re sticking to our own: California is starting to turn into Frank Herbert's Arrakis.