A Florida supermarket parking lot has experienced the opening of a massive 85-foot sinkhole, with the gaping void growing by the hour, UK MailOnline reported.
The hole was initially 30 feet wide and less than five feet deep when it first developed on Thursday morning in front of a Publix in Winter Haven outside of Tampa and across from Legoland Florida theme park.
With no signs of stopping, the depression had spread 85 feet wide and 15 feet deep by the afternoon, geologists and engineers said.
"Early this morning it was just a small depression in the parking lot and some rippling in the asphalt," said Brian Swain, property manager for Winter Haven Square shopping center about 50 miles east of Tampa. "By 10 o'clock, it had grown."
The pavement has been forced to buckle and warp dozens of yards away from the center of the hole due to the collapse of the earth beneath the parking lot, according to UK MailOnline.
Since Florida's ground is mostly supported by porous rocks that can dissolve beneath the soil over time, sinkholes are not unusual occurrences in Florida.
And the most common place for sinkholes to develop is in the Tampa area, which has been nicknamed "Sinkhole Alley."
"The asphalt continues to ripple, but I've been told by geotechnical engineers that that can be just asphalt shifting because the ground near it has shifted," Swain told WFTS-TV.
Although evacuation for nearby businesses has not been ordered, experts are keeping an eye on the sinkhole's growth.
No injuries occurred when the sinkhole developed as there were no cars parked on the lot.
The property manager cordoned off the area while geologists examined the bedrock with sonar to determine how much the sinkhole was likely to grow.
In 2008, the University of South Florida mapped more than 200 sinkholes of varying sizes in Polk County alone based on data from the Florida Geological Survey and state Department of Environmental Protection, USA Today reported.
