If we all died how long would London remain?

Question

Roads would be overgrown quite fast but how long would buildings last. Remember the old roman buildings did not so much fall down but were used as building material by others. Ankor Wat lasted some time in Cambodia. Wipe out the human race how long before the planet recovers?

Answer 1

chernobyl happened 20 years ago..
this website http://englishrussia.com/?p=293
has pics of chernobyl 20 years after the abandonment!
the site seems to be down for some reason,

20 years is my guess! educated guess too!

Answer 2

London would remain but it will not look ike it does now. With no-one controlling the Thames barrage floding will induce duckwwed growth throughout the city. This inturn would result in waterborne animals to form increasinly large habitats. In addition there would be no road sweepers or park attendants, the higher ground will become windswept ans evntually build up of dust and plant debris would allow for new growth of soil and plants throughout the city. In turn this woul allow for other animals to fom habitats (rats etc etc) The climate in London will dicatate how and when buildings fall down, but over 1000 years or so general disrepair and animal ruin will cause most if not all to break up and turn to dust and get blown away. Scary thoughts but this is what will happen.. take a look at british history and study ancient clans of the highlands and see how those communities were simply left and nature took hold.

Answer 3

The roads would be overgrown with what, exactly? There's quite a lot of greenery in London but not enough to turn the city into a jungle without human presence. In fact, a lot of Central London is often described with the words 'concrete jungle'. So - London would remain for a couple of thousand years at least, if every member of the human population was suddenly wiped out in a way that didn't physically affect any buildings, etc.

Answer 4

Are you asking how long it would take nature to compost the bricks and steel and concrete and glass of a huge city? To level buildings with storm surges and or earthquakes? To erode the mortar with wind and acid rain erosion?

I am sure some engineer somewhere can give you the math.

But I would bet that if you wiped out the human race completely, the planet would RECOVER much more quickly, than if people were still around.

Answer 5

Mass flooding in the next 50 - 100 years would washe away most of the buildings but the foundations for the most part would remain so post-human earthlings would be abole to build their new city on the existing if not a bit wet foundations.

Answer 6

How old are those Inca Temples they found? They may have been overgrown, but they were still standing and in pretty good condition. With modern buiding materials and standards I think we could expect it to be standing for thousands of years yet, obviously that is expecting no floods, earthquakes or any other things that us destroying our planet could bring

Answer 7

The planet would recover in its own time. It has done every 600,000 years which is the average for a major earth disaster. But if all humans are dead it doesn't matter if the buildings rot. At least the earth could repair itself instead of us destroying it all the time

Answer 8

In terms of planetary timescale our handiworks would probably disappear in the space of a cosmic weekend.
Who knows how many civilisations have come and gone before us?
The whole of so called 'civilisation' has happened in the last 10,000 years and that's the blink of an eye.

Answer 9

America would steal all the stones and erect a New London in the desert next to the London Bridge reconstruction.

It would be a major tourist attraction complete with hotel/casino.

I can see it....fish and chips slots! Beatles Blackjack. ;)

Answer 10

I hope you are not thinking of doing this experiment.

Assuming this is a hypothetical question, then untill doomsday. I'm sure there is bound to be some evidence for thousands of years (as for the ancient egyptians)