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Why Mexico City's thirst is causing it to sink
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/06/04/mexico-city-sinking-water-crisis/Why Mexico City’s thirst is causing it to sink
The demand for water in Mexico’s capital is draining its underground aquifers — and fueling some of the fastest subsidence rates in the world.
By Kasha Patel
June 4, 2024 at 6:30 a.m. EDT
MEXICO CITY — On a recent morning, visitors wandered around Mexico City’s Metropolitan Cathedral, Latin America’s oldest — and one of its largest. Walking from chamber to chamber, tourists snapped images of dramatic ceiling-high altars, soaring columns and sculptures. But there’s another unintended detail that stands out: the cathedral is leaning.
[...]
This sinking, which is known as land subsidence, crops up across the world. While it can be subtle in many places — it pushes land down around an inch or two a year in much of the U.S. — the rates in Mexico City are some of the highest in the world.
Some areas in Mexico City are slipping as fast as 20 inches a year in recent decades, according to researchers. Overall, the clay layers under the soil have compressed by 17 percent in the last century.
A culprit for the uneven sinking in Mexico City, researchers say, is pumping water from underground. The water extraction enables the porous soil to compact and depress. Since more than half of the city’s water supply comes from underground aquifers, its leaders have struggled to tackle the problem.
[...]
The demand for water in Mexico’s capital is draining its underground aquifers — and fueling some of the fastest subsidence rates in the world.
By Kasha Patel
June 4, 2024 at 6:30 a.m. EDT
MEXICO CITY — On a recent morning, visitors wandered around Mexico City’s Metropolitan Cathedral, Latin America’s oldest — and one of its largest. Walking from chamber to chamber, tourists snapped images of dramatic ceiling-high altars, soaring columns and sculptures. But there’s another unintended detail that stands out: the cathedral is leaning.
[...]
This sinking, which is known as land subsidence, crops up across the world. While it can be subtle in many places — it pushes land down around an inch or two a year in much of the U.S. — the rates in Mexico City are some of the highest in the world.
Some areas in Mexico City are slipping as fast as 20 inches a year in recent decades, according to researchers. Overall, the clay layers under the soil have compressed by 17 percent in the last century.
A culprit for the uneven sinking in Mexico City, researchers say, is pumping water from underground. The water extraction enables the porous soil to compact and depress. Since more than half of the city’s water supply comes from underground aquifers, its leaders have struggled to tackle the problem.
[...]