In November 2010, a giant crater suddenly opened up in a family home in Guilin, southern China's Guangxi Province. The pit formed at around 2:30 am when the members of the family were all in bed. Homeowner Zeng Pengqi said: We heard a loud cracking sound and the ground was shaking. We thought it was an earthquake. The family raced outside but was bewildered to find that no other homes were shaking; venturing back inside they discovered that a huge 2m deep pit had mysteriously opened up in one of the downstairs rooms.

In December 2001, a house in Waihi, New Zealand, collapsed into a huge hole measuring 50 metres wide and 15 metres deep. A family of five, including three young children, escaped serious injury despite their home crashing into a chasm created by an old mine shaft collapsing in the middle of the night.

In May 2010, a huge, almost perfectly circular, sinkhole measuring 66 feet (20 m) wide and 100 feet (30 m) deep suddenly opened up, swallowing a three-storey building and a house in Guatemala City. Authorities blamed heavy rains caused by tropical storm Agatha.