Mexico City is one of the fastest sinking cities in the world. Now a powerful satellite from the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) confirms the accelerated progress of this mute threat that puts nearly 20 million people at risk.
A satellite designed by NASA and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), known as NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar), was able to capture with unprecedented precision the scale and evolution of the phenomenon in various areas of the Mexican capital. The analysis is based on preliminary measurements taken from space between October 2025 and January this year, during Mexico’s droughty season.
The results of their research were included in a map showing how the subsurface of the metropolis is moving. On the map, NASA has identified areas where subsidence exceeds 2 centimeters per month (shown in shadowy blue). The agency specifies that the areas highlighted in yellow and red may represent background signals (or noise) that are expected to decrease as the satellite instrument collects more data.
The photo also highlights the location of the Benito Juarez International Airport, located near Lake Nabor Carrillo, which operates in the middle of an area characterized by accelerated subsidence. “Images like these confirm that NISAR measurements are as expected,” said Craig Ferguson, deputy project director.
Mexico City lies on the clay bottom of the antique Lake Texcoco. NASA explains that this process is a consequence of intense groundwater pumping and the increasing burden of urban development. Both factors have been compacting the antique lake’s soil for more than a century.
This phenomenon was first documented in 1925 by engineer Roberto Gayol. Between 1900 and 2000, rainfall levels fell by almost 35 centimeters per year in some areas, causing damage to infrastructure such as subways, one of the largest mass transit systems in the Americas.
A 2024 study by Dario Solano-Rojas, a remote sensing specialist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, found that subsidence is not uniform. After analyzing changes in the city’s elevation between 2011 and 2020, the researcher and his team concluded that the rate of subsidence is highly variable: while in some areas up to 50 centimeters are recorded per year, in others the phenomenon is almost imperceptible.
This causes “differential settlement”, i.e. uneven settling of the ground not only over square kilometers or city blocks, but even at the scale of a meter. When a street, railway line or building slopes differently at one end than the other, its stability is at risk.