Texas Sinkhole Now Over 1,000 Feet Wide as Residents Prepare to Flee

A massive sinkhole in a small Texas town is growing again after being stable for around 15 years, causing locals to fear for their safety.

The sinkhole, which first appeared in 2008 in the Liberty County town of Daisetta, around 55 miles northeast of Houston, started as a 20-foot hole and grew to be a massive crater around 900 feet across and 260 feet deep.

As the sinkhole grew, it swallowed anything in its path, including cars, telephone poles and oil tanks, the Dallas Morning News reported. It has gained around 150 feet in both width and depth since Sunday, when it started growing again, taking its width to over 1,000 feet.

"We just never thought it would start again," Linda Hoover, a local resident who lives near the sinkhole, told local news KTRK. "When we bought our house a few years ago, we were under the understanding that it was stabilized."

Sinkholes can occur when the layer of ground below the surface erodes away, often due to the flow of groundwater dissolving the rock. When the depression under the ground becomes large enough, the surface may give way in a sudden collapse.

"Sinkholes form in regions where there are many subterranean cavities and the bedrock experiences structural failure," Steve Brenner, a professor in the Department of Geography and Environment at Bar Ilan University, Israel, previously told Newsweek.

The Daisetta sinkhole in particular is thought to have resulted from the town sitting on a massive salt dome, which has slowly eroded away, according to the U.S. Geological Society (USGS).

According to a study published in the journal Scientific Reports in 2018, fluids can often find their way into salt domes via abandoned wells or damaged pipes and casings from the oil and gas industry, especially in Texas. Sinkholes have resulted in around $300 million in damage costs per year across the U.S. over the past 15 years, the USGS says, with the actual cost possibly being much higher. The worst affected states are Florida, Texas, Alabama, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee and Pennsylvania.

There had been no changes to the Daisetta sinkhole since 2008, until April 2, when the ground suddenly began to crumble and collapse into the abyss.

"My neighbor came over (Sunday) and said he kept hearing popping sounds like a gunshot. We went to the backyard, and there were buildings falling in. It was like a movie. You can see cracks forming in the ground," local resident Tim Priessler told KTRK.

Residents now fear that they may have to evacuate the town, although no evacuations have yet been ordered. Evacuation calls are decided based on the the distance, direction, and speed of the sinkhole's growth.

"I was having a lot of trouble going to sleep last night because I didn't know if we were going to get swallowed up. My family told me it happened kind of fast before," Jordana Priessler, another local resident, told KTRK.

Sinkholes can be unpredictable and fast-changing, and they can grow rapidly with little notice.

"My worst fear is for it to overtake us at night. So that's the reason we haven't really been able to sleep. We have packed our bags just in case and parked our cars kind of funny. So we can get out of here in a hurry if we need to," Hoover said.

Do you have a tip on a science story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about sinkholes? Let us know via science@newsweek.com.