--- title: Giant Sinkhole Opens Up in California: Video description: Watch the moment when a giant sinkhole opens up in the middle of a road in Madera California north of Fresno canonical: https://time.com/4291147/giant-sinkhole-video-california-madera/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-12T18:56:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:47:42.610Z og:title: See the Terrifying Moment When a Giant Sinkhole Opens Up og:description: Watch the moment when a giant sinkhole opens up in the middle of a road in Madera California north of Fresno og:url: https://time.com/4291147/giant-sinkhole-video-california-madera/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte2ea356ee2466a70/69888ed1428a9eb062cd22ff/12977111_1160646777312995_7411366874009729014_o.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2048 og:image:height: 1152 og:image:alt: 12977111_1160646777312995_7411366874009729014_o og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: See the Terrifying Moment When a Giant Sinkhole Opens Up twitter:description: Watch the moment when a giant sinkhole opens up in the middle of a road in Madera California north of Fresno twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte2ea356ee2466a70/69888ed1428a9eb062cd22ff/12977111_1160646777312995_7411366874009729014_o.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # See the Terrifying Moment When a Giant Sinkhole Opens Up > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=5e429dae-1cf9-480e-90f7-820ffa951906&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: TIME Explains: Sinkholes [Watch (HLS stream): TIME Explains: Sinkholes](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/0WEtQ4Wa.m3u8) (1:10)  _Published 2013-08-13. TIME Senior Editor Bryan Walsh explains the science behind sinkholes, and why it seems like the geological phenomenon is becoming more common._  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Apr 12, 2016 6:56 PM UTC  City of Madera Police Department  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Apr 12, 2016 6:56 PM UTC Authorities have shared video of the moment when a sinkhole formed in the middle of a road just north of Fresno. The 15-foot-by-20-foot-deep sinkhole formed in a 12-foot-by-15-foot section of the street, causing the street fall to into the sewage line, the City of Madera Police Department [said](https://www.facebook.com/City-of-Madera-Police-Department-641767625867582/?fref=photo) in a Facebook post. The road is expected to be closed for repairs for an “extended” period of time. Authorities suspect recent rainfall may be responsible for the damage. Rain can trigger sinkholes in areas where land surface is made up of “rocks that can be naturally dissolved by groundwater circulating through them,” according to the U.S. Geological Survey: --- > “” --- ## Transcript You might say as if we're living in the year of the sinkhole. Earlier this year, a street collapsed in Toledo, Ohio, taken down one car. In February, a sinkhole actually collapsed underneath a bedroom of a man in Tampa, killing him. And his past weekend, a major sinkhole opened up near Orlando's theme park district forcing dozens of people to flee a hotel. Sinkholes are a part of geology of Florida. You have a limestone karst just underneath this sort of dirt and sand that's on top of the rock, and as water flows down into the ground, it can actually eat away the limestone. That's a naturally occurring event, but it may be happening slightly more often now because as we develop more and more of this state, we sort of lose the ability for the ground to absorb the water gradually when you have a heavy rainstorm, as often the case in Florida in the summertime. Instead, when you get a big rainstorm, the water tends to collect in certain areas and then flow [ unk ] down to that ground. That water then eats away the limestone. Then on top of that, you have more and more structures, more and more buildings on top of that very thin layer of dirt and sand, and [ unk ] and all that, something is gonna give. 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