I'm afraid of heights. I'm also afraid of depths so I guess I have a dilemma. That's one of the reasons it freaks me out a little bit to know there's a sinkhole in Missouri that plunges 175 into the depths of the Earth. Yikes.

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I find the geology in Missouri fascinating. So many caves, so much limestone, so many unique types of rock everywhere. That curiosity led me to a conversation on the Missouri sub-Reddit that happened a few years ago where someone mentioned the Slaughter Sinkhole.

Side note: Slaughter Sinkhole is located not far from the Devil's Elbow between Rolla and Fort Leonard Wood where it dives 175 straight freaking down.

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As mentioned in the Reddit conversation, this big hole in Missouri does fill up with precipitation quite often. By the way, Slaughter Sinkhole has an almost equally deep cousin (Editor's Note: sinkholes have cousins?) called Conical Sinkhole nearby which dives down 100 feet.

If Slaughter Sinkhole sounds intimidating, it is. But, it's nowhere near the deepest sinkhole in the world. According to the BBC, that honor goes to one in China that I can't even begin to spell so I won't try. It's 660 meters deep. Once again, I won't be descending on a rope near that one anytime soon. Nope.

This whole sinkhole ordeal reminds me of the one that suddenly appeared on a Missouri golf course a few years ago. Imagine trying to chip out of that crevasse. Nope yet again.

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