Mexico City Is Sinking So Quickly, It Can Be Seen From Space
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico City It’s sinking at a rate of about 10 inches (about 25 centimeters) per year, making it one of the fastest-collapsing metropolises in the world, according to new satellite images released this week by NASA.
One of the most sprawling and populous urban areas in the world, with 3,000 square miles (about 7,800 square kilometers) and nearly 22 million people, Mexico’s capital and surrounding cities were built on a former lake bed. Many streets in the city center were once canals, this is a tradition continues in rural areas.
Extensive groundwater pumping and urban development have significantly contracted the aquifer; This means that Mexico City has been sinking for more than a century, and many monuments and ancient buildings, such as the Metropolitan Cathedral, where construction began in 1573, are visibly leaning sideways. The shrinking aquifer also contributed to chronicity. water crisis This is expected to get worse.
“It’s damaging some of Mexico City’s critical infrastructure, such as the subway, drainage system, water, drinking water system, residences and streets,” said Enrique Cabral, a researcher who studies geophysics at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. “This is a huge problem.”
Mexico City is sinking so fast that the collapse can even be seen from space.
In some areas, such as the main airport and the iconic monument commonly known as the Independence Angel, the phenomenon averages 0.78 inches (2 centimeters) per month, according to a newly released NASA report.
Overall, this translates into an annual subsidence rate of about 9.5 inches (24 centimeters). In less than a century, the drop was more than 39 feet (12 meters), according to Cabral.
“We have one of the fastest rates of land subsidence in the entire world,” he said.
NASA estimates are based on measurements taken between October 2025 and January 2026 by a powerful satellite known as NISAR, a joint venture between NASA and the Indian Space Research Organization, which can track real-time changes on the Earth’s surface.
NISAR scientist Paul Rosen said that by capturing details of the Earth from space, the project also “tells us something about what’s really going on beneath the surface.”
“It’s basically a documentation of all of these changes in a city,” Rosen said. He added: “You can see the full extent of the problem.”
Over time, the team hopes to be able to get closer to specific areas and one day take building-by-building measurements.
More generally, researchers hope to apply the technology around the world to track things like natural disasters, changes in fault lines, the effects of climate change in regions like Antarctica, and more.
This could be used to support warning systems, Rosen said, allowing scientists to alert governments to the need to evacuate in the event of volcano eruptions, for example.
For Mexico City, this technology represents a major advance in investigating the subsidence problem and mitigating its worst effects, according to Cabral.
For decades, the government has largely ignored the problem, except to strengthen the foundations beneath monuments such as cathedrals. But after the water crisis flared up recently, Cabral said authorities began funding more research.
Images from the NISAR satellite and the data that comes with it will be important to scientists and officials planning how to solve the problem.
“The first step to mitigating the situation long term is understanding,” Cabral said.
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