Move Back
![Guatemala Sinkhole]()
May 31, 2010: A sinkhole covers a street intersection in downtown Guatemala City. Rain showers from tropical storm Agatha were blamed for the crater, which engulfed a three-story building. In April 2007, a sinkhole in the same area killed 3 people.![Kimberley_Diamond_Mine]()
The Kimberley Diamond Mine (also known as the Big Hole) in South Africa holds the disputed title of being the largest hand-dug hole in the world. From 1866 to 1914, 50,000 miners dug the hole with picks and shovels, yielding 2,722 kg of diamonds. Attempts are being made to have it registered as a world heritage site.![Hollywood_Boulevard_AP]()
June 22, 1995: three blocks of Hollywood Boulevard in California were closed for weeks after a 60-foot-deep sinkhole developed. The hole was located in front of the staging area for MTA subway construction, causing the MTA to temporarily close the tunnel.![Les_Arcs_sur_Argens]()
June 16, 2010: General view of damage in the town center after floods by Le Real River in Les Arcs sur Argens, south eastern France. The previous day, unusually heavy rains hit the region and caused the river to overflow. In addition, flash floods caused by torrential rain killed 19 people and left 7 missing near France's Mediterranean coast, local officials said on Wednesday. More than 350 mm (14 inches) of rain fell on the Var department in southern France in a few hours on Tuesday.![Lisbon_Reuters]()
November 25, 2003: Rescue workers remove a bus with a crane from a Lisbon street hole, where it had been parked before the ground opened and appeared to swallow it.![Nachterstedt_Reuters]()
July 18, 2009: An aerial view shows the debris of a residential building and a destroyed road in the eastern German village of Nachterstedt. Three residents were missing after their lakeside home and another building suddenly collapsed early Saturday into the water. A 350-meter stretch of shoreline gave way next to an old open-cast coal mine converted into a lake, about 170 kilometers southwest of Berlin.![Paseo_Nuevo_Reuters]()
March 12, 2008: Members of a television crew stand near a hole in the Paseo Nuevo in San Sebastian. The hole was caused by a storm on Thursday that sunk numerous boats and caused extensive damage in the Biscay area.![Rio_de_Janeiro_Reuters]()
April 30, 2004: Rescue workers try to remove a car which fell into a flooded hole on Borges de Medeiros avenue in Rio de Janeiro. The driver, who did not want to identify himself, had left the door open on the passenger side and could only look on as the vehicle sank into the hole. The night before, a water main ruptured, causing the two-and-a-half meter-wide sinkhole and leaving Rio's state water company (CEDAE) to investigate the cause of the pipe break. Rio's famous Corcovado Mountain can be seen in the background.![San_Diego_Reuters]()
February 24, 1998: A sinkhole which damaged an on-ramp to Interstate 15 continued to grow February 25. The hole was caused by a drainage pipe which burst due to heavy rains attributed to El Nino weather patterns and measures eight hundred feet long, forty feet wide, and seventy feet deep.![Shouyang_Reuters]()
March 28, 2006: A cave-in on the Shouyang section of an expressway linking the capitals of Hebei and Shanxi provinces in North China brought traffic to a standstill. A 100-meter-long crater, 10 meters wide and 10 meters deep, was created on the Shijiazhuang-Taiyuan Highway. No one was injured and it was not clear what caused the damage.![Guatemala City]()
June 2, 2010: Rains from Tropical Storm Agatha caused this giant sinkhole A giant sinkhole in Guatemala City. Collapsed roads and highway bridges complicated rescue efforts on Tuesday after Agatha drenched Central America, burying homes under mud and killing at least 180 people.![Guatemala City]()
June 18, 2010: A sinkhole is seen developing inside a property that houses ten families in Guatemala City. The hole, which is currently two meters wide and four meters deep, is caused by a failing drainage system that has produced two other, much bigger sinkholes.![Gallipoli_Reuters]()
March 30, 2007: Cars lie in a sinkhole caused by a road collapsing into an underground cave system, in the southern Italian town of Gallipoli. There were no injuries in the overnight incident, according to local police.![Diamond Pit]()
March 6: Workers stand next to a giant sand-pit called "Udachny" (Lucky) in Siberia, where around 90 percent of Russian diamonds are mined. A new agreement is expected to be signed soon between the Russian Federation and the South-African diamond corporation De Beers on the annual sale of Russian uncut diamonds, according to reports.![Dachegnqiao_Town_Reuters]()
June 15, 2010: Local residents look at a sinkhole near Qingquan primary school in Dachegnqiao town, Ningxiang, Hunan province, China. The hole, 150 meters (492 feet) wide and 50 meters (164 feet) deep, has been growing since it first appeared in January and has destroyed 20 houses so far. No causalities have been reported, and the reason for the appearance of the hole remains unclear, local media reported.![Cenote_Ik_Kil_AP]()
June 6, 2010: Orlando Duque and other Columbia athletes dive into the Cenote Ik Kil near Chichen Itza in the Yucatan peninsula, Mexico. The athletes were training for round 2 of the 2010 Red Bull Cliff Diving world series, Saturday June 5.The World's Biggest Holes
Around the world, giant holes are everywhere. The most recent -- a sinkhole that formed in Guatemala City this June -- may be the largest yet. Sinkholes, mines, dams, and general destruction abound. By Kat Meduski
Move Forward
- The World's Biggest Holes
