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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Oscar Lopez in Mexico City

Up to 2cm a month: Nasa keeps track as Mexico City sinks into the ground

The Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral.
The Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral. Photograph: Diego Grandi/Alamy

Walking into Mexico City’s sprawling central Zócalo is a dizzying experience. At one end of the plaza, the capital’s cathedral, with its soaring spires, slumps in one direction. An attached church, known as the Metropolitan Sanctuary, tilts in the other. The nearby National Palace also seems off-kilter.

The teetering of many of the capital’s historic buildings is the most visible sign of a phenomenon that has been ongoing for more than a century: Mexico City is sinking at an alarming rate.

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