World's Top 10 Famous Sinkholes

The Great Blue Hole is considered the world’s deepest sea-hole found in the coast of Belize. (National Geographic)

The most awesome sink holes in the world.

A sinkhole, also known as a swallow hole,  is a natural depression or hole in the Earth's surface caused by karst processes which occur when underground rocks that can be dissolved by water—such as salt, gypsum, and limestone—are inundated. There are more than 80 sinkholes in the world. Here are the world's top 10 most famous sinkholes.

1. Guatemala, 2007

In 2007 a sinkhole opened up in Guatemala City. The reportedly 100 meter deep (330 feet) sinkhole swallowed about a dozen homes and is blamed in the deaths of three people. Rainstorms and a ruptured sewer main may have caused the sinkhole.

2. Guatemala, 2010 

A gigantic sinkhole, larger than a city intersection, opened in the northern part ofGuatemala City, Guatemala, not far from where the 2007 sinkhole appeared, after the region was battered by Tropical Storm Agatha on Sunday, May 30, 2010. A three-story building and a house fell into the hole. The risk for repeat sinkholes in Guatemala City is high and also highly unpredictable.

3. Lisbon, Portugal

A bus driver in Portugal had a lucky escape after plunging into one of the world's biggest potholes in Lisbon, Portugal on November 25, 2003. The driver could do little to avoid the gaping chasm when the street in front of the bus suddenly opened up. The bus was pulling into the central terminal in Lisbon when it happened. The 10 meter deep (30 feet) hole is believed to have been caused by torrential rain. 

4. Mulberry, Florida

This 56 meter deep (185 feet) sinkhole appeared in 1994 in Mulberry, Florida in a pile of waste material dumped by the mining company IMC-Agrico. 

5. Winter Park, Florida

In May 1981, a massive sinkhole opened up underneath a public swimming pool near the Winter Park area of Florida. The hole has a width of about 98 meters (321 feet) and a depth of 27 meters (88 feet). It has destroyed an entire two-story home, a public pool, large portions of Denning Drive, and an import car dealership.

6. Picher, Oklahoma

Years of mining for lead and zinc has left the town of Picher full of sinkholes. The roofs of some of the mines can no longer support the heavy weight of the earth and cause many of the mines to collapse. The former municipality is home to only giant chat waste piles and numerous massive sinkholes.  

7. Ik-Kil Cenote,  Mexico 

Swimmers float in the sapphire waters of the Ik-Kil cenote near the Mayan site of Chichén Itzá in Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula. Cenote means "natural well" in Spanish.

Sinkholes occurring at sea level will fill up as high as the water table creating the famous clear blue pools which were used by Mayan royalty for both relaxation and ritual sacrifices.

8. Neversink Pit

The Neversink Pit is a limestone sinkhole found in Alabama. It is one of the most-photographed sinkholes in the world because of its beautiful fern-covered ledges and waterfalls. The hole is about 12 meters (40 feet) wide at the top, but it expands to 30 meters (100 feet) at its bottom.

9. Iceland

Though the river is fed by ice as it melts from a glacier, this 45 meter (150 feet) inverted funnel-shaped hole was blasted into being by rising steam from geothermal vents below. 

10. Blue Hole, Belize  

The Great Blue Hole is considered the world’s deepest sea-hole found in the coast of Belize. It is more than 304 meters (1,000 feet) wide and 121 meters (400 feet) deep. The Great Blue Hole of Belize was formed from a limestone cave system. During the last ice age when sea levels were lower, the caves flooded as the planet warmed and sea levels rose. It is a magnet for some of the world’s most extreme divers.