Number 12 Bus Plunges into Sinkhole In 2020, a massive sinkhole opened up in the
city of Xining, in China’s Qinghai Province, and swallowed up an entire bus. According to reports
from local media, at least six people lost their lives while several others were declared missing.
The vehicle took a deep nose dive as the street cracked open. Several bystanders tried to rescue
the bus passengers but they too were engulfed by the sinkhole as it suddenly widened. An explosion
then followed, presumably as the result of a rupture in gas or electric lines. Dozens
of vehicles and over 1,000 rescue workers were dispatched to the area. A crane was used to pull
the bus out of the hole. While the exact cause of the collapse remained to be determined, there
is some suspicion that it had to do with overall economic pressure. The region’s expected to keep
up with the country’s explosive urban development, even though it’s among China’s poorest provinces.
Number 11 Berezniki The city of Berezniki, in Russia’s Ural Mountains,
is slowly being devoured by sinkholes. A former Soviet-era labor camp, Berezniki was established
on top of a potash mine. After nearly a century of extraction, deep voids were left beneath the
city. The ceilings of the massive underground cave system are supported by enormous walls
and pillars of salt. In recent years, flooding in the mine has started to dissolve the salt,
which has led to the appearance of sinkholes in the city. The largest of them, nicknamed “The
Grandfather”, is 430 yards long, 340 yards wide and 780 feet deep. This means that the entire
Washington Monument could fit inside it, with plenty of room to spare. There have been few
reported injuries so far. Still, relocating the city, and more than 150,000 inhabitants, has been
considered in order to avoid a potential disaster. Number 10 Sinkhole Contaminates Drinking Water
In 2016, a 45-foot-wide sinkhole in central Florida caused contaminants to pour into the
state’s primary water aquifer. It happened at a plant owned by fertilizer titan Mosaic. The hole,
believed to have been at least 300 feet deep, opened up under a multi-ton gypsum stack,
which is a pile of hazardous waste. Aside from gypsum, which has a low level of radiation,
water laced with sodium and sulfate also fell into the drinking water. Estimates on cleanup costs
were in excess of $50 million. Mosaic started operations to pump out the contaminated water
and offered free bottled water, on request, to residents in the Polk County area while
testing was being carried out. While preliminary analysis of multiple water wells looked promising,
there were some who feared that the extent of the contamination was being downplayed by the company.
Number 9 Daisetta
Daisetta is a city in Liberty County, Texas, that sits on a gigantic salt dome. This means
that the land is susceptible to collapse. The instability of the land is viewed by
locals as the “legacy of the oil rush”. In 1969 a sinkhole formed in the area and, 12 years later,
a larger one grew out of it. The 1981 hole reached a depth of about 30 feet and had a width
of 250 feet, meaning that it was similar to the wingspan of a 747. It would, however,
pale in comparison to “Sinkhole de Mayo” a massive hole that occurred in May of 2008.
The collapse in the salt dome was attributed to mining operations in the area. Mud and oil filled
the hole, which had a maximum depth of 150 feet and was about as wide as three football fields.
It was eventually stabilized and no one was hurt but geologists still fear for the future
of Daisetta and its 900 inhabitants. Number 8 Dazhou Sinkhole
In recent years, China has seen a considerable rise in the occurrence of sinkholes. This has
often been blamed on corner-cutting in favor of rapidly expanding infrastructure. In 2018,
a sinkhole in the city of Dazhou, in the Sichuan Province, claimed the lives of 4 people. They
plunged through the pavement as the earth collapsed beneath them. The first two victims,
a couple who’d gotten married days before, died in a hospital after they were pulled from the
pit. A father and his son remained trapped around 32 feet underground. Unfortunately,
water pipes and high-voltage cables as well as the thickness of the debris prevented rescuers
from reaching them in time. Number 7 Picher
Picher, Oklahoma, once a major center for the mining of zinc and lead,
is presently a ghost town. Years of unrestricted underground mining took a heavy toll on Picher.
Sinkholes started to form and up to 83% of the buildings were structurally compromised.
The town’s park was closed off for fear that it would collapse and take families with it.
Throughout the years, giant piles of toxic material were also abandoned to contaminate
the land and groundwater. A study in the late 1990s showed that over a third of the children in
Picher suffered from lead poisoning. A series of tornadoes accentuated the plan to abandon the town
and it officially closed its operations on September 1st of 2009. As of January 2011,
only six homes and a local business have refused to leave. According to the latest census,
Picher presently has only 20 inhabitants. Number 6 City Block Sinkhole in Brazil
In January of 2014, residents of a neighborhood in the Brazilian city of Abaetetuba watched
helplessly as a gigantic sinkhole swallowed their homes. Moments before the ground collapsed,
electrical wires above the houses had started to snap off. This was the only warning that residents
got before the whole neighborhood started to shake. A woman on the first floor of a house,
in desperation, threw her child out of a window. The child was caught and taken away by
neighbors who then quickly returned for the woman and rescued her using a ladder. The
building she’d been in then collapsed backwards on itself. The widening crater swallowed house after
house. Incredibly, no one was seriously injured in the incident but more than 300 residents
were displaced as their entire livelihood was claimed by the sinkhole. The disaster is believed
to have been caused by water erosion from the Maracatuira River, which runs through the town.
The uncontrolled expansion of the neighborhood is the most significant factor in the tragedy.
In order to build closer to the water, swathes of vegetation were removed. Water, which would’ve
been absorbed by plant and tree roots, started eroding the land and affecting its stability.
Number 5 Shenzhen Sinkholes In May of 2013, factory workers in Shenzhen
lost their lives when a 32-foot-wide sinkhole opened up at the gates of an industrial estate.
It occurred at a time when the workers were changing shifts. According to reports on
Sina Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, five people died in the incident. It’s still unclear
how many had fallen in the sinkhole but emergency rescuers reportedly saved one man from the pit.
Just a few months prior, a security guard in Shenzhen had died in a sinkhole,
estimated at four-stories deep, which suddenly swallowed him as he was walking down the street.
Number 4 Altamura Man The Altamura Man is the name attributed to
a fossil of the Homo genus discovered in a karst sinkhole in the early 1990s, in southern Italy.
One of the most remarkable aspects about the Altamura Man is that his remains basically became
one with the sinkhole that had claimed his life. Based on analysis of the bones, it was determined
that the man had fallen into the 33-foot-deep pit more than 100,000 years prior. He’d died
from starvation or lack of water in a part of what would later be known as Lamalunga Cave.
As time passed, his bones became embedded in the stalagmites and were covered with a thick
layer of calcite. It encased the remains, which provided excellent preservation but made removal
highly difficult. This is why researchers decided to leave the Altamura Man’s bones in the sinkhole
and study them on site. Only a fragment of his shoulder blade was retrieved
and analyzed. While experts are reluctant to agree on an age or species for the fossil,
one study determined that it belonged to a Neanderthal from 128,000 to 187,000 years ago.
Number 3 Men Boiled Alive in Sinkhole In November of 2019, two men driving in the
Russian city of Penza died in a gruesome manner when their car was swallowed up by a sinkhole. The
driver had just parked his Lada Largus, when the asphalt cracked open and the vehicle fell into the
scorching water below. A ruptured hot water pipe under the parking lot had caused the collapse.
Trapped in the car, the men were basically boiled alive by waters of roughly
167 degrees Fahrenheit. It was reported that they died “almost immediately”. The victims’
names weren’t released but, as soon as the story broke on social media, users expressed
their outrage towards local authorities. Today's topic was requested by d ldn,
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Number 2 Sinkhole 81’ In 1981, the earth cracked open
and the massive ensuing crater became what’s often been described as “Florida’s most famous
sinkhole”. It occurred in Winter Park and swallowed two streets, an Olympic-sized
pool and part of a car dealership, including five Porsches. Resident Mae Rose Owens and her family
evacuated shortly before the crater claimed their three-bedroom home. The hole eventually grew to
be 75 feet deep and 350 feet wide, making it one of the largest sinkholes ever observed
as the result of natural geological processes. In its aftermath, the University of Central
Florida created an institute to research sinkhole formation. The crater became a tourist attraction,
with residents selling T-Shirts and other memorabilia with “Sinkhole 81’” written on them.
It was eventually stabilized and landscaped into Lake Rose, in honor of Owens who died in 2005.
Number 1 Cars Swallowed in Sichuan Province An enormous sinkhole in south-western China,
in the province of Sichuan, swallowed over 20 cars as well as several trees and street lights.
According to local media, no one was hurt in the incident but the sheer extent of the sinkhole was
concerning. As the roads suddenly gave way, parked cars outside a shopping mall in the city of Yibin
disappeared into the crater. While the cause of the sinkhole was still being investigated,
aerial footage of the extensive crater was released by state media. Rains filled it with
muddy water and cranes were used to extract the fallen vehicles. The surface of the sinkhole was
determined to have been 5,380 square feet, meaning it was about the size of a basketball court.
Thanks for watching! If you had the power to open up a sinkhole
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