Don't be drawn in by claims about sinkholes in Lake Superior

In June 2025, a rumor (archived) circulated online that mysterious sinkholes had appeared in Lake Superior.

One posting from a Facebook page named End Time News began: "BREAKING NEWS — June 18, 2025. Mysterious Multiple Water Sinkholes Emerge in Lake Superior, Trigger Global Scientific Alarm Between USA And Canada."

The post continued to detail the alleged sinkholes near Thunder Bay, Ontario, that sent "towering waves" crashing against the coast and caused evacuation orders in nearby communities.

The claim was popular on Facebook (archived), but it also appeared on X (archived) and Instagram (archived). Snopes readers searched our site and wrote in asking whether the claim was true.

However, we found no credible news reports of sinkholes suddenly appearing in Lake Superior on June 18 (archived, archived, archived, archived). This would have been widely reported if true — as pointed out by one commenter on EndTimes News' post. Because of the lack of credible coverage of the rumor, as well as other elements of the claim — including fantastic and unverifiable details in the text and AI-generated imagery in posts about the alleged sinkholes — we've rated this claim false.

Lt. Joseph Snyder of the United States Coast Guard Sector Northern Great Lakes that covers Lake Superior said via email: "I am not aware of any 'mysterious sinkholes' appearing near Thunder Bay, Ontario. If this was a real occurrence, the USCG would also likely not be involved in investigating geologic phenomena."

Jeremy Hennessy, a communications officer at the Canadian Coast Guard, said, "I can confirm that the news story in question is AI-generated, and that the Canadian Coast Guard has not set up any kind of 'exclusion zone' in the area."

Snopes reached out to EndTimes News to ask about the authenticity of its report and will update this article if we receive a reply.

Posts about the sinkholes were often accompanied by images that online detectors assessed to be generated by artificial intelligence. 

(Sightengine/Hive Moderation/Snopes illustration)

Additionally, we found no evidence (archived) of a Dr. Marisa Cardiff, a "lead freshwater geologist" quoted in the EndTimes News post.

Snopes previously debunked another post by EndTimes News that falsely claimed Niagara Falls turned red on the day the U.S. bombed nuclear sites in Iran.