Why Arizona’s Deserts and Dramatic Scenery Draw Visitors From Everywhere
Across Arizona, the ground is quietly breaking—and it’s not earthquakes or storms causing it. Driveways split open overnight. Walls tilt. Roads fracture. Fields tear apart. Solid land suddenly feels unstable. These are earth fissures, and they’re creeping across Arizona’s fastest-growing communities.
The culprit isn’t tectonic activity—it’s water—or, more accurately, the lack of it. Decades of heavy groundwater pumping have drained ancient aquifers faster than they can refill. When underground layers compress, the surface sinks. Uneven sinking causes tension that bursts into jagged cracks: fissures that can stretch for miles, swallow tires, and ruin homes. Once they appear, they never fully heal.
