When you buy through links on our website , we may earn an affiliate commission . Here ’s how it works .
Sinkholes are wonders of nature : They can come out suddenly and be tremendous , sometimes magnanimous enough to eat up whole buildings .
swallow hole work when the rock beneath the surface , such as limestone , can naturally be dissolved by the groundwater within it . As the rock-and-roll dissolves , cavern develop . When these caverns get so big that the country above can no longer support them , the surface crack up .
A huge sinkhole that opened up near the town of Tierra Amarilla, Chile, in 2022.
Some sinkholes have been observe to moderate their own ecosystems — and may even harbor undiscovered plant and creature species . In 2022,scientists bring out a 630 - human foot - deep ( 192 meter ) sinkholecontaining an ancient forest and dense overgrowth in southernChina .
Here are some of the biggest known sinkholes on Earth , as measured by depth .
1. Xiaozhai Tiankeng, China
Located in Fengjie County in China , Xiaozhai Tiankeng — which around translates to " the Heavenly Pit " — is the world ’s deepest sinkhole . It is 2,172 feet ( 662 meters ) deep and was formed over the limestone Difeng cave , which was carved out by an underground river , which still flows beneath the sink .
2. Crveno Jezero (Red Lake), Croatia
Red Lake is a sinkhole containing a karst lake — a lake take form as the result of a collapse of cave near the city of Imotski , in Croatia . Although the lake is blue , it is mention after the skirt blood-red - brown cliff , which are stained by Fe oxides . The sinkhole has a profundity of around 1,740 metrical unit ( 530 1000 ) and turn back severalspecies of fish , include the endangered espy minnow ( Delminichthys adspersus ) and the Imotski spin loach ( Cobitis illyrica ) .
refer : prodigious cave in Mexico that formed 15 million year ago is even more enormous than we thought
This part is also home to Blue Lake , another sinkhole with a total depth ( from the rim ) of about 720 feet ( 220 m ) .
Xiaozhai Tiankeng — or Heavenly Pit — the largest known sinkhole on Earth.
2. Sima Humboldt, Venezuela
Sima Humboldt is an enormous swallow hole locate on the summit of Cerro Sarisarinama , a flat - top mountain in Bolívar State , Venezuela . It has a profoundness of 1,030 feet ( 314 m ) and control a forest area at its understructure . Another elephantine sink , call Sima Martel , is located around 2,300 feet ( 700 m ) from the brim of Sima Humboldt .
4. Dragon Hole; Paracel Islands, South China Sea
The Dragon Hole — also known as the Yongle Blue Hole or the " eye " of the ocean — is a 984 - foot - trench ( 300 m ) profane hole near the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea . It was discovered in 2016 and is the deepest bed spicy hole in the public . gentle holes are large , undersea vertical cave or sinkholes found in coastal realm . They often comprise a variety of marine life-time , ranging from corals to shark .
5. Taam Ja' Blue Hole, Mexico
Thesecond - large gamey hole in the world — Taam ja',which means " deep water " in Mayan — was discovered off the coast of Mexico ’s Yucatán Peninsula in 2021 , although item of the sinkhole just emerged this year . The giant , underwater cavern , located in Chetumal Bay , is around 900 understructure ( 274 m ) deep . It has extortionate sides with slopes of almost 80 degrees , and the lip of the cavern sits around 15 feet ( 4.6 m ) below sea level .
6. Berezniki (The Grandfather), Russia
Most swallow hole are work by nature , but some are make as a outcome of human natural process . The city of Berezniki , Russia , in the Ural Mountains , has been plagued by sinkholes for X . It started as a parturiency camp and was build up over several Soviet - erapotash mines , where the extraction of salts containing atomic number 19 destabilise the land , moderate to collapses . The largest sinkhole — nickname The Grandfather — opened in July 2007 and is estimated to be 780 feet ( 238 one thousand ) inscrutable .
7. Bayou Corne, Louisiana
The Bayou Corne sinkhole in Louisiana was discovered in 2012 after calendar month ofunexplained seismal activity in the area . It form as a result of a break down underground saltiness dome cavern that was connected to a nearby industrial well , and direct to the evacuation of the township of Bayou Corne . As of 2014 , it was at least 750 feet ( 229 meters ) deep .
8. Dean’s Blue Hole, Bahamas
Dean ’s Blue Hole , which has a depth of 663 understructure ( 202 m ) , is a blue hole located just off Long Island in the Bahamas . The sinkhole — which is enclosed by rock , a lagoon and a white beach — is a free - diving hotspot . There are multiple passages run from the independent blue kettle of fish leading to cave systems and rooms .
9. Copper mine sinkhole, Chile
Anenormous sink opened up in Chilein July , 2020 . It mensurate 104 feet ( 32 meter ) in width and was forecast to be about 656 metrical foot ( 200 m ) deep . The sink appeared on the web site of the Alcaparrosa copper mine , owned by the Canadian Lundin Mining caller .
10. Mystery sinkhole, China
In 2022 , scientist in China announced the discovery ofa 630 feet ( 192 m ) bass sinkholein the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region . The sinkhole was receive to be 1,004 feet ( 306 molar concentration ) tenacious and 492 feet ( 150 m ) wide , and was so large it had a forest growing inside it .
" I would n’t be surprised to know that there are mintage found in these caves that have never been report or described by science until now , " Chen Lixin , who led the cave expedition team , narrate China ’s Xinhua news agency .
11. Qattara Depression, Egypt
The Qattara Depression is a lowland area covering 7,500 satisfying international nautical mile ( 19,400 square kilometers ) — roughly three times the size of Delaware — in northerly Egypt . The sinkhole formed over 1000 of years through weathering and current of air wearing . It gain a depth of 436 feet ( 133 m ) — the second lowest point in Africa , behind Lake Assal in Djibouti — and is track with common salt pans , sand dune and salinity marshes .
12. Great Blue Hole, Belize
The Great Blue Hole is a marine sink off the coast of Belize . It is 407 feet ( 124 m ) deep , with a surface area of 706,470 straight feet ( 70,650 substantial metre ) . It is a part of the larger Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System , a UNESCO World Heritage site .
In 2019 , a team of explorer — including Fabien Cousteau , the grandson of film producer and adventurer Jacques Cousteau who first made the sink famous , and Richard Branson — mapped out the story of the Great Blue Holeusing soundwaves . They discovered new stalactite — mineral growths that look like icicles — as well as plastic bottleful , play up the job ofocean pollution .
— Huge sinkhole bursts open near underwater ' vent ' in South Australian coast
Red Lake is named after its reddish cliffs.
— Sinkholes as big as a skyscraper and as wide as a urban center street clear up in the Arctic seafloor
— Cavers discover snakes and falls inside Yemen ’s infamous ' Well of Hell ' in humankind - first descent
13. The Devil’s Sinkhole, Texas
In Texas , there lie a campana - form formation called the Devil ’s Sinkhole , which has a depth of 350 feet ( 107 m ) . Ranchers notice the cave in 1876 , and it has since become a hotspot for geological research . The sinkhole contains many cave passages that are home to one of the expectant colony of Mexican loose - tailed bats ( Tadarida brasiliensis ) in Texas . On quick nights , around3 million bats emerge from the sinkholein search of food for thought .
14. Hole of Macaws, Brazil
TheBuraco das Araras — or Hole of Macaws — is one of the largest sinkholes in South America . It is 328 substructure ( 100 m ) deep and organize as the result of erosion of limestone rocks beneath the open . It ’s name add up from the big routine of birds exist there , with the sinkhole serving as a breeding ground for the scarlet macaw ( Ara macao ) .
Images showing the inside of the Taam Ja' Blue Hole.
Aerial view of Berezniki, a town in Russia plagued by sinkholes as a result of industrial mining.
Dean’s Blue Hole is over 600 feet deep.
The sinkhole opened up in a rural area near the town of Tierra Amarilla, Chile.
A rock in the desert at the northern edge of the Qattara Depression.
Belize’s Great Blue Hole is over 400 feet deep.
The Devil’s Sinkhole in Texas is home to around three million bats.
The Buraco das Araras in Brazil is one of the biggest sinkholes in South America.
