Mexico City is Sinking. NASA’s Powerful Satellite Just Revealed Its Fastest Speed

Mexico City is one of the the fastest sinking cities in the world. Now, a powerful satellite from the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is confirming the urgency of this silent threat that is putting nearly 20 million people at risk.

A satellite developed by NASA and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), called NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar), was able to capture in detail the growth and evolution of the atmosphere. this phenomenon in different parts of the Mexican capital. The analysis is based on baseline measurements taken from October 2025 to January this year, during summer in Mexico City.

Their findings were mapped onto a map that shows how a small part of the metropolis is changing. On the map, NASA identified areas with more than 2 cm per month (in dark blue). The agency explains that the yellow and red areas may correspond to background signals (or noise) that are expected to decrease as the satellite instrument gathers more information.

The photo also shows the location of the Benito Juarez International Airport, which is located near the Nabor Carrillo lake, which operates in the middle of the high-speed area. “Images like this confirm that NISAR’s measurements are meeting expectations,” said Craig Ferguson, deputy director of the project.

Mexico City is located on the clay and sea of ​​the ancient Lake Texcoco. NASA explains that this process is the result of the large pumping of water underground and the increased weight associated with the development of cities. All these factors have kept the old seabed flat for more than a century.

The phenomenon was first recorded in 1925 by engineer Roberto Gayol. Between the 1900’s and 2000’s, some areas subsided about 35 cm per year, causing damage to infrastructure such as the Metro, one of America’s largest public transportation systems.

A study conducted in 2024 by Dario Solano-Rojas, a remote sensing expert at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, found that subsidence is not uniform. After analyzing the changes in the rise of the city between 2011 and 2020, the researcher and his team concluded that the rates of subsidence are very different: Although some areas register up to 50 cm per year, in others this phenomenon is less visible.

This creates a “differential subsidence,” where the ground sinks unevenly not only on a kilometer or block scale, but also on a meter scale. When a road, rail, or building is stuck against one side, its stability is disturbed.