[realpatriot]

What is the term for the sinking of the ground when something is extracted from below? Sub-something or other. Anyway, maybe Libya is rapidly converting itself into a lake (the size of Germany?)

[AM2000]

Subsidence?

[VOA]

What is the term for the sinking of the ground when something is extracted from below?

Same thing can happen to oil drilling platforms at sea.
I saw a short film about a Phillips Petroleum platform (in the North Sea, IIRC)
that had the ocean-floor sink enough after pumping out a lot of oil that the
company had to put HUGHMONGOUS hydraulic jacks on the platform legs...then jack up
the platform so that the raging waves wouldn't destroy it.