The idea of the ground opening up and swallowing cars, houses, even people is unthinkable on a quiet North Yorkshire street.

Or at least it was, until a sinkhole opened up under a detached house last month, leaving part of the structure close to collapse and a community concerned about the future of their properties.

No-one was hurt when the 25ft wide hole opened up beneath the 100-year-old building in Ripon, but the area was sealed off amid fears that the precariously-leaning side of the brick property could fall at any time.

Local residents said there was a long-standing problem with gypsum-related subsidence in the area which had caused other homes to collapse over the years.

The British Geological Survey has said the most susceptible area in the UK for sinkholes is the Permian gypsum deposits of north-east England, particularly around Ripon. Large sinkholes have developed around the area, some of which have affected property and infrastructure, because gypsum is far more soluble than limestone, and dissolves more rapidly.

The North Yorkshire sinkhole was the latest in a spate to appear across the UK. Also last month, a car was swallowed up when a 30ft-deep crater appeared in the driveway of a family home in High Wycombe, and a 35ft-wide and 20ft-deep sinkhole opened up under homes in a quiet cul-de-sac in Hemel Hempstead.

A stretch of the M2 in Kent was closed after a 15ft-deep hole was discovered in the central reservation. Two more sinkholes then appeared on nearby farmland.

Dr Tony Cooper of the British Geological Survey said gypsum is extremely soluble and a block the size of van would take about 18 months to dissolve in a river. “It’s quite difficult to predict where the next one is going to be,” he added. “But, quite often, they occur in lines that follow the joint pattern and there are groups that occur quite close together in time.”

Keith Thomson, Telegraph & Argus environmental columnist and a former Bradford Labour and Independent councillor, says not all sudden holes in the ground are natural.

“Nearly all refer back to low mining technology in years gone by,” he said. “Tunnels and caves in the surface rocks are man-made, often not mapped, and when they collapse, they take folk by surprise.

“Close to home, there were sudden holes appearing in old coal adits and tunnels around the Manchester Road / Southfield Lane roundabout in Bradford when it was being re-engineered some years ago.

“In the 1970s, when I was headteacher at Grange School, a pit opened up in the middle of the school’s football pitch during a game, and we could see candle smoke markings on the sides. It was an old bell pit with tunnels leading off.”

Mr Thomson says the more natural phenomena need two conditions – permeable or porous rock such as limestone, and a high water table or heavy rain and ground water moving through.

“In the UK we have the hard, massive Carboniferous Limestone of the Peak District, Ingleton and South Wales, and the Permian Magnesian Limestones that make up the North York Moors and the area around Ripon and Tadcaster. The youngest rocks, apart from some old calcareous corals in Norfolk, are in areas such as the chalk ridges of the Yorkshire Wolds.

“All these limestones will have some measure of void or gap underground where running water either abrades and erodes the rock, or dissolves it away. This happens particularly strongly when the water is cold.

“This is all part of the normal cycle that erodes or denudes the landscape as it tries to return upstanding features to a flat plain, and this takes hundreds of thousands of years.”

He added: “I suppose the current rash of sinkholes is only partly due to increased water levels, though that may be the last straw, because it’s likely that the major reason is that we are now building on more and more marginal land, and ignoring the nature of the bedrock. It may be nothing more than an expression of our increased house building, and is a timely reminder that we are not quite as important as we think we are.

“All these limestones were formed in ancient seas and lakes, then raised up in mountain building periods. Now they are being worn down again, and we are just beginning to notice.”