Sinkholes can be just a few feet deep or plunge more than 2,000 feet (over 600 meters), depending on where and how they form. Most that affect homes and roads are typically a few to a few tens of meters deep.

What a sinkhole is

A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground created when underlying rock dissolves or collapses and the surface drops into the void. They are most common in “karst” regions where soluble rocks like limestone, gypsum, or salt are present.

Typical sinkhole depths

Most everyday, land-based sinkholes in populated areas are relatively modest in depth.

  • Many residential or road sinkholes are on the order of a few meters to a few tens of meters deep.
  • Documented examples in the U.S. include features around 30–60 meters (100–200 feet) deep in karst terrains like Tennessee and Utah.

So when people see news clips of a street or yard collapsing, the hole is usually deep enough to swallow a car or part of a house, not a full skyscraper.

Record-breaking deep sinkholes

Some natural sinkholes are immense and rank among the deepest holes on Earth.

  • The Xiaozhai Tiankeng (“Heavenly Pit”) in China is about 662 meters (2,172 feet) deep, making it the deepest known sinkhole of its type.
  • Other giant vertical sinkholes, such as Sima Humboldt in Venezuela, reach depths of more than 300 meters (over 1,000 feet).

These extreme examples show that sinkholes can be hundreds of meters deep when the geology and underground drainage allow long-term excavation.

Underwater / “blue hole” sinkholes

Underwater sinkholes, often called blue holes, can also reach extraordinary depths.

  • Dean’s Blue Hole in the Bahamas is about 203 meters (666 feet) deep.
  • The Great Blue Hole in Belize is roughly 124 meters (407 feet) deep.

Exploration of some water-filled sinkholes is still incomplete, so some may ultimately prove even deeper than current measurements suggest.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.