This is the first georeferenced database of sinkholes, ground collapses, and road cave-ins in Mexico. We collect reports from public sources — news media, social networks, and civil protection alerts — to build a nationwide picture of urban subsidence. The database currently contains over 13,000 verified and georeferenced records.
Mexico experiences thousands of subsidence events every year. The combination of aquifer overexploitation, aging drainage infrastructure, seismic activity, and rapid urbanization creates hazardous conditions in most of the country's cities. Yet no centralized official registry of these events exists.
A continuous monitoring system analyzes news articles, social media posts (Facebook, X/Twitter), and official reports to identify, geolocate, and categorize each event. Data is updated continuously and can be filtered by state, year, cause, and source.
The most common causes include water pipe leaks, sewer and drainage failures, heavy rainfall, seismic activity, aquifer overexploitation, mining, and construction. Each event on the map is categorized by the cause reported in the original source.
Early detection using technologies such as vehicle-mounted Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) can identify underground cavities before they collapse. Learn about the Cartomex Sinkhole Prevention Program, the first comprehensive system in Mexico combining GPR, InSAR satellite monitoring, and this historical database.