5. In late February 2007, residents of Guatemala City heard some rumbling underneath them but were not sure what was happening until instantly a near-perfect circle of earth dropped some 30 stories. The sink hole killed two and forced the evacuation of over 1,000 people. Authorities believed that the sinkhole was the result of a corroded sewage system deep beneath the surface.

6. Another giant sinkhole in Guatemala City swallowed a three-story building on May This 60 ft. wide by 200 ft. deep sinkhole could have been developing for weeks or even years, however the flood waters from the tropical storm Agatha accelerated the sinkhole’s growth and caused it to finally collapse.

7. A giant sinkhole caused by the rains of Tropical Storm Agatha is seen in Guatemala City on May 31, More than 94,000 people were evacuated as the storm buried homes under mud, swept away a highway bridge near Guatemala City and opened up sinkholes in the capital.

10. Florida Sinkhole

11. The drying of the Dead Sea created these eerie sinkholes near the Ein Gedi Kibbutz in Nov An aerial view shows the craters on the now-barren land.

12. Arial photo of several sinkholes located Southwest of Winslow, AZ
 Arial photo of several sinkholes located Southwest of Winslow, AZ. Photo courtesy of  Louis J. Maher, Jr. 

13. In the German village of Nachterstedt, houses were lost when a lake’s shoreline collapsed. Three residents were missing and an entire neighborhood was teetering on the edge of destruction.

14. The Summer Bay Resort on U. S
The Summer Bay Resort on U.S. Highway 192 in Clermont, Florida, experienced tragedy when several of its buildings fell into a sinkhole in Guests had only 10 to 15 minutes to escape the collapsing buildings.

15. Located between Adelaide and Melbourne in South East Australia, Mount Gambier is known for its geographical features such as water channels, caves, volcanic rocks, and the famous Blue Lake. Nicknamed “The city of craters”, its volcanic craters are actually naturally-occurring sinkholes that are filled with water thus creating gorgeous scenery.

16. The sinkhole in Berezniki, Soviet Russia began in 1986 as a result of a flooding event in a potash mine and has gradually worsened each passing year. At over 200m deep, 80m long and 40m wide, it is expected to swallow up the only rail line that leads to and from the potash mines, where 10% of the world’s potash used in fertilizer come from.

17. Undertaking a major development in Bowling Green, Kentucky can be a very risky business since the city is dotted with naturally-occurring sinks that could open up at any time. One of these sinks halted the plans for the construction of the Trimodal Transpark after the 200ft wide sinkhole gave way near the construction site.

18. The Devil’s Sinkhole in Edward’s County Texas is a limestone wonder that has a 40 ft. x 60 ft. opening and a total drop of 400 ft. The sink is famous for being a vertical natural bat habitat for the Mexican Free Tailed Bat which houses an estimated 3 million bats.

19. One of nature’s great oddities has been turned into a virtual tourist trap. Residents of Bimmah Oman have turned a spectacular looking natural-occurring sinkhole into a swim park. Located about 6km from Dibab along the coast graded road from Muscat to Sur the Oman sink hole boasts of clear blue picturesque waters

20. Located in Abel Tasman National Park in New Zealand, Harwood Hole is one of several important cave systems in Takaka Hill, between the Tasman Bay and the Golden Bay. From the surface is a 50m round sinkhole entrance that descends into 183m. For adventurers, the long rope descent is considered to be one of the most spectacular caving experiences at Hardwood’s, which has an overall depth of 357m.

21. The most devastating sinkhole erosion in Florida occurred in 1994 when a 15-story sinkhole tore open right beneath an 80-million-ton pile of gypsum stack. The cave-in dumped 4 million to 6 million cubic feet of toxic and radioactive gypsum and waste water into the Floridian aquifer, which provides 90 percent of the state’s drinking water.

22. Also known as the Heavenly Pit, this double-nested sinkhole has 662m deep vertical walls. Located in the Chongqing District, this sinkhole is arguably the ‘world’s largest sinkhole’ at 626m long, 537m wide and between 511 to 662m deep. It is a double-nested structure with an upper bowl of 320m deep, while its lower bowl is 342m deep, and both of them are on average 257 to 268m across. It’s said that the sinkhole formed over the last 128,000 years

23. The most beautiful and most mysterious sinkholes of Venezuela are natural wonders which include four types of round basins containing their own unique ecosystem found nowhere else on earth. Scientists are clueless on the origin of the stunning sink holes

24. Part of the larger Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System, which was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO; the Great Blue Hole is a spectacular sinkhole at 124m deep with stilted stalactites as its most unusual features. The largest submarine sinkhole off the coast of Belize, it lies in the center of Lighthouse Reef. It is circular in shape, over 300m across and 124m deep and was formed during several episodes of Quaternary glaciations when sea levels were much lower.