Striking sinkholes: Earth opens up

CLERMONT, FL - AUGUST 12: People look at a partially collapsed building over a sinkhole at Summer Bay Resort near Disney World on August 12, 2013 in Clermont, Florida. The 40 to 60 foot sinkhole opened up under the resort building reportedly begining late August 11 into early August 12. There were no injuries or deaths reported. (Photo by Gerardo Mora/Getty Images)

This photo provided by the Toledo, Ohio Fire and Rescue Department shows a car at the bottom of a sinkhole caused by a broken water line in Toledo, Ohio on Wednesday, July 3, 2013. Police say the driver, 60-year-old Pamela Knox of Toledo, was shaken up and didn't appear hurt but was taken to a hospital as a precaution. (AP Photo/Toledo, Ohio Fire and Rescue Department, Lt. Matthew Hertzfeld)

ADVANCE FOR MONDAY JUNE 17 AND THEREAFTER - In a Saturday, June 8, 2013 photo, caver David Ochel starts the 75 foot rope climb to the surface from the middle level of the Seco Sinkhole in Medina County. The main body of the cave, another 75 foot drop from this landing area, is accessed from another large vertical column hidden in the darkness behind the cavers standing on the ground. The sinkhole and associated cave, located on a private ranch in Medina County, are one of the largest recharge features in the Edwards Aquifer and is protected by a conservation easement. (AP Photo/San Antonio Express-News, William Luther)

epa02182918 A handout picture provided by Guatemalan Presidency on 1 June 2010 shows a skinhole created by tropical storm Agatha in 'Ciudad Nueva' neighbourhood, in Guatemala City, Guatemala, on 29 May 2010. EPA/PRESIDENCY/HO/Luis Echeverria EDITORIAL USE ONLY

FOR USE WITH FEATURE PACKAGE FOR JAN. 11--HIDDEN MENACE--FILE--State regulators' \"worst nightmare\" happened in June 1994 when a cavernous hole, 106 ft. wide by 185 ft. deep, opened in the center of an IMC-Agrico waste stack near Mulberry, Fla., like a scene out of Jules Verne's \"Journey to the Center of the Earth.\" The sinkhole, shown in photo taken July 13, 1994, at IMC-Agrico's New Wales plant released 20.8 million pounds of liquid phosphoric acid into the ground below. The company was able to clean up the spill before it harmed the drinking water supply, regulators say. (AP Photo/Selbypic)

A car sits in a giant sinkhole in Duluth, Minn. Wednesday, June 20, 2012. Residents evacuated their homes and animals escaped from pens at a zoo as floods fed by a steady torrential downpour struck northeastern Minnesota, inundating the city of Duluth, officials said Wednesday. (AP Photo/The Star Tribune, Brian Peterson) MANDATORY CREDIT; ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS OUT; MAGS OUT; TWIN CITIES TV OUT

A man inspects a sinkhole inside a house on July 19, 2011 north of Guatemala City. When neighbors heard the loud boom overnight they thought a cooking gas canister had detonated. Instead they found a deep sinkhole the size of a large pot inside a home in a neighborhood just north of Guatemala City. The sinkhole was 12.2 meters (40 feet) deep and 80 centimeters (32 inches) in diameter, an AFP journalist who visited the site reported. Police, members of the country's natural disaster office and water utility company officials came to visit the site. Sinkholes, formed by the natural process of erosion, can be gradual but are often sudden. Guatemala City, built on volcanic deposits, is especially prone to sinkholes, often blamed on a leaky sewer system or on heavy rain. AFP PHOTO / Johan ORDONEZ (Photo credit should read JOHAN ORDONEZ/AFP/Getty Images)

John Sparkman is dwarfed as he looks into a sinkhole near Picher, Okla., Saturday, April 6, 2008. Years of lead and zinc mining has left turned the town into a superfund site with sinkholes, lead-laced mountains of rock, and tainted water. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

CHEVY CHASE, MD - DECEMBER 3: A utility worker looks underground to examine the scene where a sinkhole caused when a broken water main collapsed part of Friendship Blvd. on December 3, 2010 in Chevy Chase, Maryland. No one was reported injured in the accident. (Photo by Logan Mock-Bunting/Getty Images)

A local resident throws a stone into a sinkhole near Qingquan primary school in Dachegnqiao town of Ningxiang, Hunan province June 15, 2010. 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 has been reported and the reason for the appearance of the hole remains unclear, local media reported. REUTERS/Stringer (CHINA - Tags: SOCIETY IMAGES OF THE DAY) CHINA OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN CHINA - RTR2F6OC

A sinkhole caused by heavy rain from the remnants of Tropical Storm Gaston in Richmond, Va., is photographed Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2004. The unexpectedly downpour led to widespread flooding that left at least five dead and devastated a historic neighborhood.(AP Photo/Richmond Times-Dispatch,Mark Gormus)

A Los Angeles fireman looks under a fire truck stuck in a sinkhole in the Valley Village neighborhood of Los Angeles Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2009. Four firefighters escaped injury early Tuesday after their fire engine sunk into a large hole caused by a burst water main in the San Fernando Valley, authorities said. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

This picture taken on January 28, 2013 shows workers using machinery to fill in a sinkhole that buildings collapsed into near a subway construction site in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong province. The hole measured about 1,000 square feet across and was around 30 feet deep, but no one was killed, according to a state media report. CHINA OUT AFP PHOTOSTR/AFP/Getty Images

A massive sinkhole near Daisetta, Texas is seen Wednesday afternoon, May 7, 2008. A large sinkhole swallowed up oil field equipment and some vehicles Wednesday in southeastern Texas and continued to grow. (AP Photo/Houston Chronicle, James Nielsen)

Workers use excavators to fill in a sinkhole which occured overnight on Shiliuzhuang road, in Beijing on April 26, 2011. A section of the road collapsed beneath a truck, slightly injuring the driver and a passenger, who both jumped out the vehicle beforeit sank into the hole, as an authoritiy suspects the hole was caused by the construction of a subway line. CHINA OUT AFP PHOTO (Photo credit should read STR/AFP/Getty Images)

LA JOLLA, CA - OCTOBER 3: A massive 200' x 240' landslide opens up and tears apart the pavement of Soledad Mountain Road, October 3, 2007 in the Mount Soledad neighborhood of La Jolla near San Diego, California. The landslide has damaged or destroyed reportedly 6 homes and forced the evacuation of at least 20 others. (Photo by Kent Horner/Getty Images)

Sao Paulo, BRAZIL: General view showing the huge crater at the collapsed 'Pinheiros' subway station in Sao Paulo, Brazil, 15 January 2007. Rescuers have dug through tons of rubble in search of as many as seven people believed buried inside a giant sinkhole that opened at a construction site in South America's biggest city. Brazilian officials said a passenger minivan had fallen to the bottom of a 40-meter (130-foot)-deep pit dug to facilitate delivery of supplies for workers building an underground railway line. The lip of the hole gave way to a landslide, taking with it vehicles on a roadway around the edge and dumping tons of earth, asphalt and concrete atop them. AFP PHOTO/Mauricio LIMA (Photo credit should read MAURICIO LIMA/AFP/Getty Images)

In this Wednesday Dec. 26, 2012 photo, the area around a sinkhole in the middle of a road junction is cordoned off in downtown Taiyuan, in northern China's Shanxi province. There is no report of injuries after the road caved in. (AP Photo) CHINA OUT

This aerial view shows the large sinkhole that continues to grow as workers try unsuccessfully to retrieve sunken sports cars from the depression in Winter Park, Fla., May 11, 1981. (AP Photo)