Mar 2, 2013

Notable sinkholes from around the globe

Michael Gold 1 Comment Maryland, Nation, World Baltimore, Beijing, China, Florida, Maryland, nature, Owings Mills, sinkhole, sinkholes

16 photos

Sinkholes are very much in the news this week after a Florida man disappeared into one that swallowed his bedroom while he was asleep on Thursday night. As of Saturday morning, rescue personnel continued searching for the man inside the hole that formed below his Tampa home.

To explore this geological phenomenon, we took a look at some of the more notable sinkholes to form worldwide, as well as a few that made headlines in Maryland in the last 10 years.

: A giant sinkhole caused by the rains of tropical storm Agatha is seen in Guatemala City on June 1, 2010. Collapsed roads and highway bridges complicated rescue efforts after Agatha drenched Central America, burying homes under mud and killing at least 175 people. (Daniel LeClair/Reuters)

: A giant sinkhole caused by the rains of Tropical Storm Agatha is seen in Guatemala City on May 31, 2010. 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. (Casa Presidencial / Handout / Reuters)

: Workers block off the site of a huge sinkhole which occurred overnight in Shiliuzhuang road, in Beijing on April 26, 2011. A section of the road collapsed beneath a truck, slightly injuring the driver and a passenger, who both jumped out the vehicle before it sank into the hole. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)

: Workers use machinery to fill in a sinkhole that buildings collapsed into near a subway construction site in Guangzhou, south China’s Guangdong province on January 28, 2013. The hole measured about 1,000 square feet across and was around 30 feet deep, but no one was killed, according to a state media report. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)

: This picture taken on January 28, 2013 shows debris in a sinkhole that buildings collapsed into near a subway construction site in Guangzhou, south China’s Guangdong province. The hole measured about 1,000 square feet across and was around 30 feet deep, but no one was killed, according to a state media report. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)

: Workers use machinery to fill a sinkhole that buildings collapsed into near a subway construction site in Guangzhou, south China’s Guangdong province. The hole measured about 1,000 square feet across and was around 30 feet deep, but no one was killed, according to a state media report. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)

: This picture taken on January 29, 2013 shows rescuers filling the sinkhole that buildings collapsed into the night before near a subway construction site in Guangzhou, south China’s Guangdong province. The hole measured about 1,000 square feet across and was around 30 feet deep, but no one was killed, according to a state media report. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)

: A helicopter hovers over a sinkhole that’s 120-feet wide and 180-feet deep in a gypsum stack at IMC-Agrico’s New Wales plant, southwest of Mulberry, Fla., on June 29, 1994. (Scott Wheeler/Reuters)

: A local resident throws a stone into a sinkhole near Qingquan primary school in Dachegnqiao town of Ningxiang, Hunan province on June 15, 2010. The hole, 150 meters (492 feet) wide and 50 meters (164 feet) deep, has been growing since it first appeared in January and had destroyed 20 houses when this picture was taken. (Stringer/Reuters Photo)

: A massive sinkhole, approximately 200 feet by 240 feet, opens up and tears apart the pavement of Soledad Mountain Road, October 3, 2007 in the Mount Soledad neighborhood of La Jolla near San Diego, California. The landslide damaged or destroyed reportedly 6 homes and forced the evacuation of at least 20 others. (Kent Horner/Getty Images)

: Atlanta police and firefighters secure an area where an enormous sinkhole over a hundred feet in diameter in the parking lot of a Marriott Courtyard hotel collapsed by a break in a sewage culvert on June 14, 1992. The incident, which claimed at least one life, occurred after heavy rain fell through the night. (John Kuntz/Reuters)

: A car with two passengers fell into a sinkhole at Owings Mills mall on April 28, 2004. The two victims were flown to Shock Trauma. (Barbara Haddock Taylor/Baltimore Sun Photo)

: A large sinkhole opened on East Monument Street in Baltimore in summer 2012. The sinkhole appeared above a 120-year-old drainage culvert after heavy rains, causing evacuations and closing the road. (Algerina Perna/Baltimore Sun Photo)

: A large sinkhole opened on East Monument Street in Baltimore in summer 2012. The sinkhole appeared above a 120-year-old drainage culvert after heavy rains, causing evacuations and closing the road. (Algerina Perna/Baltimore Sun Photo)

: A large sinkhole opened on East Monument Street in Baltimore in summer 2012. The sinkhole appeared above a 120-year-old drainage culvert after heavy rains, causing evacuations and closing the road. (Algerina Perna/Baltimore Sun Photo)

: A Lochearn woman peers into an approximately 10 foot by 10 foot sinkhole that appeared in her driveway in March 2003. In the photo, a pump is removing water from the hole. (Kim Hairston/Baltimore Sun Photo)

How does a bedroom just collapse? Sinkhole science explained
By Joseph Serna, Los Angeles Times
March 1, 2013

Millions of years of geological activity and marine ecology culminated in the the sudden appearance of a 50-foot hole under a Florida suburban household Thursday.

Sinkholes similar to one that swallowed 36-year-old Jeff Bush’s bedroom and, tragically, him along with it in the Tampa suburb of Brandon, are common in Florida, experts say.

Ironically, it’s because the Florida peninsula is one of the world’s most stable areas.

Notable sinkholes from around the globe

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