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Ever seen such giant sinkholes?
We present images from around the world of giant holes caused by heavy rains, earthquakes and a meteorite crash.
A giant sinkhole caused by the rains of Tropical Storm Agatha is seen in Guatemala City in this photograph taken on May 31, 2010. More than 94,000 people were evacuated as the storm buried homes under mud, swept away a highway bridge near Guatemala City and opened up sinkholes in the capital.
Photograph: Casa Presidencial/Handout/Reuters
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Ever seen these giant sinkholes?
People stand next to a 24.9 metre diameter pit at a village in Guangyuan, Sichuan province in China, in this photograph taken on February 28, 2013. According to local media the pit formed on a karst landform last year after the ground surface kept sinking for six days in September.
The investigators said the pit may face further sinking after rains due to its geological conditions.
Photograph: Stringer/Reuters
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Ever seen these giant sinkholes?
People stand by a caved-in area on a paddy field in Fukou county, Hunan province, in this picture taken on January 12, 2013.
More than 20 pits formed from the sunken ground surface in Fukou county during the past four months. According to the local media, the government's initial investigation showed years of mining destroyed the local underground water systems and led to the numerous cave-ins.
Photograph: China Daily/Reuters
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Ever seen these giant sinkholes?
Rescue workers remove a bus with a crane from a Lisbon street hole in this photograph taken on November 25, 2003 in Portugal. The bus was parked on the street when the ground began to open up and gobble it.
Photograph: Jose Manuel/Reuters
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Ever seen these giant sinkholes?
A sinkhole which damaged an on-ramp to Interstate 15 in San Diego. The hole was caused by a drainage pipe which burst due to heavy rains attributed to El Nino weather patterns and is approximately eight hundred feet long, forty feet wide, and 70 feet deep.
Photograph: Reuters
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Ever seen these giant sinkholes?
A stranded car is hoisted from a collapsed road surface in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, China, in this photograph taken on September 7, 2008. The road collapsed on Sunday afternoon and trapped the car in a hole, which measured 16.4 feet in depth and 49.2 feet in diameter
Photograph: China Daily/Reuters
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Ever seen these giant sinkholes?
A woman walks on the damaged TF326 road after a portion of it collapsed after storms, near the Palo Blanco village on Spain's Canary island of Tenerife in this photograph taken on November 23, 2009.
Photograph: Santiago Ferrero/Reuters
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Ever seen these giant sinkholes?
Pamela Knox waits for rescue after a massive sinkhole opened up underneath her car in Toledo, Ohio. Toledo firefighters later rescued Knox without major injuries. Fire officials told a local TV station that a water main break caused the large hole.
Photograph: Lt Matthew Hertzfeld/Toledo Fire and Rescue/Handout via Reuters
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Ever seen these giant sinkholes?
Rescue workers carry out the body of a victim in a road cave-in accident in this picture taken through a security window in Shenzhen, Guangdong province on May 21, 2013
Photograph: China Daily/Reuters
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Ever seen these giant sinkholes?
Onlookers examine the damage after a section of a road collapsed in Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski, southern Poland in this photograph taken on December 19, 2012. A hole, measuring 33 ft deep and at least 164 ft wide, appeared on a road in Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski overnight, reported by local media.
Photograph: Pawel Malecki/Agencja Gazeta/Reuters
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Ever seen these giant sinkholes?
A rescue team works under a caved-in area on a road in Loudi, Hunan province, in this photograph taken on June 18, 2013. The road surface sank after a truck drove past. A motorcyclist riding behind the truck was injured, according to local reports.
Photograph: China Daily/Reuters
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Ever seen these giant sinkholes?
An aerial view shows the debris of a residential building and a destroyed road in the village of Nachterstedt, in this photograph taken on July 18, 2009.
Three residents were missing in the eastern German village of Nachterstedt after their lakeside home and another building suddenly collapsed early Saturday into the water. A 350-metre stretch of shoreline gave way next to an old open-cast coalmine converted to a lake, about 170 kilometres south-west of Berlin.
Photograph: Handout/Gemeindeverwaltung Nachterstedt/Reuters
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Ever seen these giant sinkholes?
Policemen check a collapsed section of a crossroad in Hefei, Anhui province, China, in this photograph taken on August 8, 2009. A taxi and a few motorbikes fell into the hole, local media reported.
Photograph: China Daily/Reuters
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Ever seen these giant sinkholes?
Cars lie in a sinkhole, caused when a road collapsed into an underground cave system, in the southern Italian town of GallipoliMarch 30, 2007. There were no injuries in the overnight incident, according to local police.
Photograph: Fabio Serino/Reuters
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Ever seen these giant sinkholes?
People look at a collapsed section of Shunwai Road in Nanchang, China's Jiangxi province, in this photograph taken April 25, 2007. No one was injured in the accident and further investigations are underway, according to local media. Picture taken April 25, 2007.
Photograph: China Daily/Reuters
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