Huge sinkhole swallows part of Austin Peay State University football stadium

Construction crews are working to fill the 40-foot-wide and 40-foot-deep hole

A picture of the sinkhole at the Austin Peay State University taken by Amber Ungaro (Amber Ungaro/ WSMV)

Engineers have been working to close a cavernous sinkhole that swallowed part of the end zone of a Tennessee university's football stadium.

The 40-foot-wide and 40-foot-deep chasm appeared at the Austin Peay State University in Clarksville on Monday when a construction crew attempted to fill in a much smaller hole that was discovered during renovation on the stadium.

Bill Persinger, a spokesperson for the university, said: "as they began digging, it became bigger and bigger and bigger”. Engineers are now working towards a solution to permanently fix the stadium.

Sinkholes are common where the rock below the land surface is limestone, carbonate rock, salt beds, or rocks that can naturally be dissolved as groundwater circulates through them, according to the US Geological Survey. As the rock dissolves, spaces and caverns develop underground.

In February, a giant mystery sinkhole (some 40ft wide and 20ft deep) swallowed up eight rare cars in a Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

In March, shocking footage capturing the moment a sinkhole swallowed cars, walls, pavements and part of a street running along a whole block in Baltimore emerged.

Last year, a sinkhole in Florida swallowed a section of a resort villa near Disney World.