Watch as a Massive Sinkhole Appears in the Middle of a City Street in Bangkok
The sinkhole stretched an estimated 160 feet and has the potential to grow wider.
Published Sept. 24 2025, 1:58 p.m. ET
Three cars were swallowed whole when a massive sinkhole opened up in the streets of Bangkok. The incident was caught on video by people who were nearby when it happened, showing just how quickly the massive and destructive force can appear.
The sinkhole formed in the Thai capital, which had been getting hammered by high winds and torrential downpours as the region's monsoon season got underway. Fortunately, it doesn't sound like anyone was injured as a result.
Still, the massive hole was a terrifying thing for spectators to witness, and video footage of the disaster quickly went viral, prompting many to wonder exactly what it would take for a sinkhole of that size to open up near them.
You can find that out, and much more, as we gathered everything we know about the Bangkok sinkhole, including what causes these types of cave-ins, and just how big they can get when they are left uncontrolled.
A massive sinkhole formed in the middle of a Bangkok street.
According to the Royal Thai Police, the shocking cave opened on Sept. 24, 2025, at around 7 a.m. The sudden appearance of the hole caused a massive evacuation near the epicenter, which not only disrupted traffic but also emptied a nearby hospital and police station out of an abundance of caution.
Fortunately, no injuries were reported from the 98-square-foot crater, which initially stretched an estimated 160 feet and has the potential to grow wider as time passes.
How are sinkholes formed?
According to local reporting from The Nation, the sinkhole in Bangkok opened up due to construction work that was taking place at a nearby subway station. However, sinkholes can form for a variety of reasons.
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) website describes sinkholes as a ground depression with "no natural external surface drainage." These depressions typically fill with water during times of rain or flooding, and then drain into the subsurface beneath the ground to empty.
As the water passes through these materials, they will dissolve any soluble substances — like limestone, gypsum, salt beds and domes, or other types of carbonate rock — creating open spaces like caverns and holes. Once those holes reach a certain size, the land above them will collapse into them, creating a sinkhole.
Depending on the size of the caverns hiding under the surface, those holes can be quite big, like the one in Bangkok that measured 160 feet deep by 98 feet wide.
What's the biggest sinkhole on record?
According to the Live Science blog, sinkholes can vary in size quite a bit. Take, for example, one of the biggest sinkholes known to man, which exists in Fengjie County, China.
Nicknamed the "Heavenly Pit," it's considered the world's deepest sinkhole at 2,172 feet. The pit was created thanks to the degradation of the limestone that covered the Difeng cave.
Today, an underground river still runs beneath the sinkhole, making it a popular tourist attraction for some.
For comparison, the largest sinkhole in the U.S. is believed to be the "Golly Hole" in Alabama. This Shelby County location collapsed in 1972, and according to the USGS, it measures 120 feet deep, 325 feet long, and 300 feet wide.