Superterranean root

[AHPP]

 

 

[sime42]

Agreed, very interesting. Something must have moved to create that tension. That smaller trunk, (or is it another bigger, aerial, root?), that's being girdled - has that leaned over at some point? It doesn't look to be vertical and seems to be welding to the main trunk.

 

More photos required.

 

 

[daltontrees]

2 alternative explanations. Could have been a surface runner. Or could have been a shallow root but ground has subsequently been reduced in level. I have seen something like it before in poplar which had had a foot of woodchip dumped at the base, had had suckering roots into the chip and then the chip had rotted away.

[AHPP]

It's very typical pit remediation woodland. Ground is loose, piss wet and on a slope. Soil slipping out from under it is quite plausible.