A car has been swallowed by a sinkhole on a South Korean street, injuring two people. The incident happened in the capital city, Seoul, when a hole around eight feet in diameter suddenly appeared, enveloping the vehicle with an 82 and 76-year-old inside. Emergency workers said nobody else was hurt, but the condition of the car’s two occupants was unclear.
Ju Isaac, a local district councilor, told reporters that he had driven past the area just moments earlier and noted that the ground appeared “soft.” South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport stated that 879 sinkholes were reported in the country between 2019 and 2023, 169 of which were in the capital.
Last October, a four-meter-deep hole opened up by a roadside in Seoul’s financial district, measuring five meters deep and stunning pedestrians. Nobody was seriously injured, however, with just one man briefly hospitalized with bruises and cuts to his leg. The area was cordoned off until workers managed to fill in the hole.
Scientists report that sinkholes result from the gradual erosion of material beneath a road’s surface. Dr. Clive Edmonds of the British Institute of Civil Engineers has studied sinkholes for decades and said, “Sinkholes happen when a layer of rock underneath the ground is dissolved by water.” He adds that some kinds of rock are more vulnerable to erosion than others, and Asian countries are more susceptible due to the materials commonly used. Additionally, in China for instance, he said that “dense development with roadworks” also creates vulnerability.
Dr. Edmonds has noted early warning signs that a sinkhole is imminent, including dips in surfaces and “tiny cracks” that can appear harmless to the untrained eye but are so significant that they can cause buildings to move.
Several sinkhole cases have made headlines in the United States over recent decades. In Oklahoma, the town of Picher became unliveable due to the number of sinkholes that continually appeared. Experts say that lead and zinc mining caused the damage.
In 2015, a man disappeared when his bedroom fell into a 20-foot-wide hole in Florida. Despite extensive efforts by emergency services, 37-year-old father Jeffrey Bush was never found.
