NASA Data Shows Mexico City Sinking 10 Inches Yearly

Mexico City, one of the world's largest urban areas with about 22 million residents spread across roughly 7,800 square kilometers, is sinking at a rate of nearly 10 inches per year, new satellite data from NASA shows. The findings, released this week, confirm the Mexican capital as among the fastest-subsiding metropolises globally, with some areas dropping 0.78 inches per month.

The data comes from the NISAR satellite, a joint project between NASA and India's Space Research Organisation launched in 2025. Measurements captured between October 2025 and January 2026 reveal subsidence rates of more than 2 centimeters per month in parts of the city, particularly around the international airport and the Angel of Independence monument. Over less than a century, sections of the city have sunk more than 39 feet, according to Enrique Cabral, a geophysics researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

Built atop the dried bed of an ancient lake, Mexico City has been subsiding for over a century due to extensive groundwater pumping to meet the needs of its sprawling population and urban development. This extraction compacts the underlying aquifer, causing the soft lakebed soil...