9 Terrifying Sinkholes

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Seffner, Florida

Imagine the pure fear of waking up in the middle of the night to the out-of-body experience of being sucked—pulled—into the Earth's upper crust. The horror, the horror. But this is exactly what happened to a man in Seffner, Florida, on February 28, 2013, when his bedroom became a 100-foot-wide sinkhole. The man is missing and presumed dead. "It sounded like a car hit my house," said Janell Wheeler, the man's aunt and one of the occupants of the home, to the Tampa Bay Times. The cause of this sinkhole is unknown.

Photo: Shelia Muni

Guatemala City, Guatemala

Most people grow up afraid of monsters crawling under their beds. When a Guatemalan man woke up to a loud implosion, he never expected to find a 12-meter-deep sinkhole under his bed.

Photo: Johan Ordonez/Getty Images

Brooklyn, New York

No one likes to sit at a red light. While a Brooklyn driver waited for the light to turn green, the pavement began to crumble under her car. Then her Ford Explorer nose-dived into a 20-foot sinkhole. Luckily, two Good Samaritans were present and rescued the driver, preventing serious injury.

Photo: Debbie Egan-Chin/Getty Images

Dachegnqiao, China

An onlooker stares into a massive sinkhole near Qingquan Primary School in the Dachegnqiao town of the Hunan province. The sinkhole steadily grew and eventually destroyed 20 houses.

Photo: Stringer Shanghai/Reuters

Guatemala City, Guatemala

In May 2010, the wrath of Tropical Storm Agatha caused more than 94,000 people to evacuate their homes and swept away a highway bridge. The storm also ripped open a giant sinkhole in the heart of Guatemala City.

Photo: Ho New/Reuters

Los Angeles, California

One morning in Los Angeles, a 22-ton fire department truck responded to a call about flooding on a residential street. When the driver backed up, the truck fell right into a sinkhole. We wonder who the fire department called when they were stuck?

Photo: David McNew/Getty Images

Beijing, China

Here, a sinkhole in Beijing engulfs a truck carrying two passengers.

Photo: STR/Getty Images

Guatemala City, Guatemala

When most people envision what dangers lie in their backyard, they think of garden-killing weeds, snakes and gopher holes. In 2007, citizens in Guatemala City worried about a sinkhole that swallowed several homes. Here is a picture of a house teetering on the edge of that sinkhole.

Photo: Daniel Leclair/Reuters

Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico

In Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula there are plenty of freshwater sinkholes, otherwise known as cenotes. These underwater ecosystems are popular scuba-diving spots because of their clear water. In this photo, two divers make their way through a cenote.

Photo: STR/Reuters

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