List of sinkholes

The Great Blue Hole, a giant submarine sinkhole, located near Ambergris Caye, Belize

The following is a list of sinkholes, blue holes, dolines, cenotes, and pit caves. A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. Some are caused by karst processes—for example, the chemical dissolution of carbonate rocks^[1] or suffosion processes.^[2] Sinkholes vary in size from 1 to 600 m (3.3 to 2,000 ft) both in diameter and depth, and vary in form from soil-lined bowls to bedrock-edged chasms. Sinkholes may form gradually or suddenly, and are found worldwide.^[3]

21st century sinkholes

The 2010 Guatemala City sinkhole

• 2007 Guatemala City sinkhole – a 100-metre (330 ft) deep sinkhole which formed in Guatemala City in 2007, due to sewage pipe ruptures
• 2010 Guatemala City sinkhole – a disaster in which an area approximately 65 ft (20 m) across and 300 ft (91 m) deep collapsed in Guatemala City, swallowing a three-story factory
• 2012 Ottawa sinkhole – Regional Road 174 at the Jeanne D'Arc interchange on September 4, 2012
• 2014 Ottawa sinkhole – at the LRT tunnelling site at Waller Street, just south of Laurier Avenue on February 21, 2014
• 2016 Ottawa sinkhole – Rideau Street was closed to all traffic from June 8 to July 2, 2016 after it collapsed above excavations being made for the Rideau station of the Confederation Lin
• 2016 Florence sinkhole – a sinkhole, thought to have been caused by a bursting of a water pipe, opened up a 200-metre (660 ft) hole on the Arno river bank in Florence
• 2016 Ruijin sinkhole – four cars fell into a sinkhole in Ruijin City
• 2014 National Corvette Museum sinkhole – a sinkhole at 350 Corvette DriveBowling Green, Kentucky

Sinkholes of Australia

The Grotto, Victoria is a sinkhole geological formation and tourist attraction, found on the Great Ocean Road outside Port Campbell in Victoria, Australia

• Ewens Ponds – series of three water-filled limestone sinkholes on Eight Mile Creek 25 kilometres (16 mi) south of Mount Gambier and 8.4 kilometres (5.2 mi)) east of Port Macdonnell, South Australia.
• Green Waterhole Cave. a karst sinkhole in South Australia.
• Koonalda Cave – a cave located in Nullarbor Plain within South Australia.
• Little Blue Lake – water-filled doline located near Mount Schank in South Australia.
• Numby Numby – a sinkhole located 64 to 80 kilometres (40 to 50 mi) from Borroloola in the Northern Territory of Australia.
• Piccaninnie Ponds Conservation Park
• The Grotto, Victoria – a sinkhole geological formation and tourist attraction, found on the Great Ocean Road outside Port Campbell in Victoria, Australia.

Sinkholes of Mexico

• Cave of Swallows – an open air pit cave in the Municipality of Aquismón, San Luis Potosí
• Dzibilchaltun – a Maya archaeological site in the Mexican state of Yucatán, approximately 16 kilometers (10 miles) north of state capital Mérida
• Ik Kil – a cenote outside Pisté in the Tinúm Municipality, Yucatán
• Sacred Cenote – a cenote at the pre-Columbian Maya archaeological site of Chichen Itza, in the northern Yucatán Peninsula
• Sima de las Cotorras – a giant circular sinkhole in the karst plateau of the Mexican state of Chiapas
• Sistema Dos Ojos – a flooded cave system located north of Tulum, on the Caribbean coast of the Yucatán Peninsula, in the state of Quintana Roo
• Sistema Sac Actun – an underwater cave system situated along the Caribbean coast of the Yucatán Peninsula with passages to the north and west of the village of Tulum
• Zacatón – a thermal water filled sinkhole belonging to the Zacatón system - a group of unusual karst features located in Aldama Municipality near the Sierra de Tamaulipas in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas

Sinkholes of Turkey

A view of the Akhayat sinkhole

• Akhayat sinkhole – sinkhole in Mersin Province, Turkey
• Cennet and Cehennem – two large sinkholes in the Taurus Mountains, in Mersin Province
• Egma Sinkhole – sinkhole and the deepest cave in Turkey
• Kanlıdivane – ancient city situated around a big sinkhole in Mersin Province

Sinkholes of the United States

• 2014 National Corvette Museum sinkhole – a sinkhole at 350 Corvette DriveBowling Green, Kentucky
• Bayou Corne sinkhole – created from a collapsed underground salt dome cavern operated by Texas Brine Company and owned by Occidental Petroleum, discovered on August 3, 2012, and 350 nearby residents were advised to evacuate
• Big Basin Prairie Preserve St. Jacob's Well, a water-filled sinkhole which lies in the Little Basin, and the Big Basin, a mile-wide crater-like depression
• Blue Hole (Castalia) – a fresh water pond located in Castalia, Erie County, Ohio
• Blue Hole (New Mexico) – circular, bell-shaped pool east of Santa Rosa, New Mexico
• Bottomless Lakes State Park Lazy Lagoon lake, made up of three separate sinkholes
• Cedar Sink – a vertical-walled large depression
• Daisetta, Texas – sits on a salt dome, in 1969, 1981, and again in 2008, sinkholes formed in the area
• Deep Lake (Florida) – a natural sinkhole in Big Cypress National Preserve in Florida
• Deep Run Ponds Natural Area Preserve – contains one of the largest remaining systems of Shenandoah Valley sinkhole ponds in the Commonwealth
• Devil's Millhopper Geological State Park
• Devil's Sinkhole State Natural Area – a natural bat habitat near the city of Rocksprings in Edwards County in Texas
• Grassy Cove – an enclosed valley in Cumberland County, Tennessee notable for its karst formations
• Kingsley Lake – a lake is thought to have formed as a sinkhole North Central Florida, about six miles (10 km) east of Starke, Florida
• Lake Eola Park – Lake Eola is a sinkhole located in Downtown Orlando, Florida
• Lake Peigneur – was a deep freshwater body, until al man-made disaster on November 20, 1980 changed its structure and the surrounding land
• Little Salt Spring – a feature of the karst topography of Florida
• Makauwahi Cave the largest limestone cave found in Hawaii
• Marvel Cave – a National Natural Landmark located just west of Branson, Missouri, on top of Roark Mountain in Stone County
• Montezuma Well – a natural limestone sinkhole near the town of Rimrock, Arizona
• Mount Joy Pond Natural Area Preserve – This and other plants are associated with a large sinkhole pond located in Augusta County, Virginia
• Peter Sinks – a natural sinkhole in northern Utah, one of the coldest places in the contiguous United States
• Pipe Creek Sinkhole – near Swayzee in Grant County, Indiana, important paleontological site
• The Inkpot – 27 meter sinkhole located at the Salt Creek Wilderness Area north of Roswell, New Mexico
• Trout Pond – a sinkhole that filled with water near Wardensville in Hardy County, West Virginia

Other

Dean's Blue Hole is the world's second deepest known salt water blue hole with an entrance below the sea level.

• Biržai Regional Park – a park in northern Lithuania established in 1992 to preserve a distinctive karst landscape
• Blue Hole (Red Sea) – a submarine sinkhole around 94 m (308 feet) deep in east Sinai, a few kilometres north of Dahab, Egypt on the coast of the Red Sea.
• Blue Lake (Croatia) – a karst lake located near Imotski in southern Croatia
• Blyvooruitzicht sinkholes
• Boesmansgat – believed to be the sixth-deepest submerged freshwater cave (or sinkhole) in the world
• Bullenkuhle – marshy lake in the extreme north of the district of Gifhorn in the north German state of Lower Saxony which has been formed into a sinkhole
• Buraco das Araras (Goiás) – one of the largest quartzitic caves located in the State of Goiás, Brazil. Considered one of the largest sinkholes (dolinas) in the world
• Danube Sinkhole – incipient underground stream capture in the Upper Danube Nature Park
• Dead Sea sinkholes
• Dean's Blue Hole – the world's deepest known salt water blue hole with an entrance below the sea level
• Dersios sinkhole – a sinkhole in Arcadia, Greece
• Devil's Hole, Bermuda – a large water-filled sinkhole, close to the southeastern corner of Harrington Sound, Bermuda
• Lago di Doberdò – a sinkhole in the Province of Gorizia, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy
• Great Blue Hole – a giant submarine sinkhole off the coast of Belize
• Gruta do Centenário – a cave located in the municipality of Mariana, Brazil, the largest and deepest quartzite cave in the world, and second in the country in terms of unevenness
• Harwood Hole – cave system located in the northwest of the South Island of New Zealand, New Zealand's deepest vertical shaft
• Hranice Abyss – the deepest abyss in the Czech Republic, cated near the town of Hranice (Přerov District)
• Hutchinson's Hole – a large sinkhole (located in Saint Ann in northern Jamaica), used by a serial killer to dispose of bodies
• Lake Guinas – a sinkhole lake, created by a collapsing karst cave, located thirty 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) north of Tsumeb, Namibia
• Lapa Terra Ronca – a dolomitic limestone cave inside the area of the Terra Ronca State Park in Brazil
• Macocha Gorge – a sinkhole in the Moravian Karst cave system of the Czech Republic
• Otjikoto Lake – a sinkhole lake that was created by a collapsing karst cave in Namibia
• Playa de Gulpiyuri – a flooded sinkhole with an inland beach located near Llanes, Spain
• Pozzo del Merro – a flooded sinkhole in the countryside northeast of Rome, Italy
• Punkva Caves – a cave system of the Czech Republic located north of the city of Brno, near the town of Blansko
• Red Lake (Croatia) – a sinkhole containing a karst lake near the city of Imotski, Croatia
• Sima Humboldt
• Sima Martel
• Voulismeno aloni
• Xiaozhai Tiankeng

See also

• Karst

References

1. Lard, L., Paull, C., & Hobson, B. (1995). "Genesis of a submarine sinkhole without subaerial exposure". Geology. 23 (10): 949–951. Bibcode:1995Geo....23..949L. doi:10.1130/0091-7613(1995)023<0949:GOASSW>2.3.CO;2.
2. "Caves and karst – dolines and sinkholes". British Geological Survey.
3. Kohl, Martin (2001). "Subsidence and sinkholes in East Tennessee. A field guide to holes in the ground" (PDF). State of Tennessee. Retrieved 18 February 2014.