I think knowing where there is a large hole is a good knowledge to have.

The old joke about thinking quicksand is a bigger problem than it actually is may or may not apply to sinkholes. While I don't have any gage for how much quicksand is out there, there sure seems to be a number of sinkholes.

Okay, this is where things get weird. Some sinkholes are actually "collapses" which indicates that the process has some type of man-made interference that caused the failure of the surface layer.  Since we aren't geologists really don't care to differentiate between the two, we can safely name the largest sinkhole in Texas.

Our winner is in Daisetta, in south Texas. The sinkhole was first noticed around 1969, grew exponentially in 2008, and continues to grow to this date. The answer to your question is, yes, cars, houses, and more were swallowed up. The hole is now over 600 by 525 feet and as much as 250 deep.

Much like the explanation above indicated, this "sinkhole" may actually be a "collapse" as a result of some drilling into a salt dome. Again, no one really cares about this distinction, they really only want to know if they will be plummeting to the center of the earth down one.

Daisetta is a very small town that really takes up less than 1.5 square miles with a population of less than 1000 people. It doesn't appear that they publicize the sinkhole/collapse, but some did have the good humor to name it "Sinkhole De Mayo".

 

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