I have seen ground like that in Iraq. The water table was high in that area by the Euphrates River.
The ground looked dry as a bone and you could walk on it with no problem. You could even drive over a lot of it with no problem. But there were these areas in the seemingly confluent land that would grab a vehicle and drag it down until it hits buoyancy point then it was stuck with a suction cup like seal.
Take anything else out there and you were stuck up solid.
We buried a HYEX out in that stuff all the way up to the cab.
Took almost three days to get it out.
It was called "OPERATION TRACKHOE FREEDOM"
We had to build a bridge out of aluminum aircraft pallets to get a vehicle out to it so we could dig it out.
I have stepped in a few stump holes during my time in the woods. Usually in the winter when they were full of water. Of course I would get wet up to my butt.
I was thinking the same thing, but an abandoned oil well mud pit that was not properly filled after drilling.
You're plenty damn lucky. That's what we find when we "discover" old filled in water wells. Were you proximate to an old home place?