Mexico City is sinking so quickly, it can be seen from space

MEXICO CITY — MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico City is sinking nearly 10 inches (about 25 centimeters) a year, according to new satellite images released this week by NASA, making it one of the fastest collapsing metropolises in the world.

One of the largest and most populous urban areas in the world, with an area of ​​3,000 square miles (about 7,800 square kilometers) and a population of some 22 million, Mexico’s capital and surrounding cities were built atop an ancient lake bed. Many downtown streets were once canals, a tradition that continues on the rural fringes.

Intensive groundwater pumping and urban development dramatically reduced the aquifer, meaning Mexico City collapsed for more than a century, leaving many older monuments and buildings – like the Metropolitan Cathedral, construction of which began in 1573 – visibly tilted to the side. The shrinking aquifer has also contributed to a chronic water crisis that will only get worse.

“It damages part of the critical infrastructure of Mexico City, such as the metro, the drainage system, water, the drinking water system, housing and streets,” said Enrique Cabral, a geophysics researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. “It’s a very big problem.”

Mexico City is sinking so fast that the subsidence can be spotted from space.

In some areas, this is happening at an average rate of 2 centimeters per month, according to NASA’s recently released report, such as at the main airport and the iconic monument commonly known as the Angel of Independence.

Overall, this means an annual subsidence rate of about 9.5 inches (24 centimeters). In less than a century, the fall has been more than 12 meters, according to Cabral.

“We have one of the fastest rates of land subsidence in the world,” he said.

NASA’s estimates are based on measurements taken between October 2025 and January 2026 by a powerful satellite known as NISAR, which is capable of tracking real-time changes on Earth’s surface and is a joint initiative of NASA and the Indian Space Research Organization.

Paul Rosen, a scientist at NISAR, said that by capturing details of Earth from space, the project “also tells us something about what’s really going on below the surface.”

“It’s basically a documentation of all these changes within a city,” Rosen said. He added: “You can see the full scale of the problem. »

Over time, the team hopes to be able to zoom in even further on specific areas and one day get building-by-building measurements.

More broadly, researchers hope to apply the technology around the world to track phenomena such as natural disasters, fault line shifts, the effects of climate change in regions like Antarctica, and more.

Rosen said it could be used to boost warning systems, allowing scientists to alert governments of the need to evacuate in the event of a volcanic eruption, for example.

For Mexico City, the technology represents a major advance in studying the problem of subsidence and mitigating its worst effects, according to Cabral.

For decades, the government largely ignored the problem other than stabilizing the foundations of monuments like the cathedral. But following recent surges in the water crisis, Cabral said, authorities have begun funding more research.

Images from the NISAR satellite and accompanying data will be key to scientists and officials planning how to solve the problem.

“To mitigate the situation in the long term,” Cabral said, “the first step is simply to understand.”

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