Sinkhole ‘at least 30m wide’ swallows tall light pole, damages football field in US

A giant sinkhole opened up on a football field in southern Illinois in the US on the morning of June 26, devouring a tall light pole, benches and artificial turf within seconds.

No one was on the field at the time or hurt by the incident in Alton, the city’s mayor David Goins told its media outlet The Telegraph.

Surveillance footage captured the ground giving way and the hole swallowing everything that was once on the surface there, sending up a plume of dust and debris.

The hole is estimated to be at least 30m wide and up to 15m deep, local media reported.

“It looks like something out of a movie, right? It looks like a bomb went off,” Alton parks and recreation department director Michael Haynes told St Louis television station KSDK.

The collapse at Gordon Moore Park occurred above a limestone mine operated by New Frontier Materials, which said in a joint statement with the city’s officials that a thorough investigation is under way.

Officials and the mining company have closed the site and surrounding roads until the park has been assessed to be safe for public use.

“Last week at that time, we had 60 to 70 people out there on the field for our soccer camp,” Marquette Catholic High School athletic director Brian Hoener told The Telegraph.

“This could have been much worse.”

Sinkholes form when rocks below the land’s surface are naturally dissolved by groundwater circulating through them, causing spaces and caverns to develop underground, according to the US Geological Survey.

When there is not enough support for the land above these spaces, the surface can suddenly collapse, taking with it houses and roads.