A growing geological crisis is unfolding in central Turkey, where nearly 700 sinkholes have opened across the Konya Closed Basin, one of the country’s most important wheat-producing regions. The surge has been accelerating for years, but recent extreme drought conditions have pushed the problem into unprecedented territory, leaving entire communities on edge.

Turkey’s disaster agency, AFAD, has now mapped 684 sinkholes throughout the basin, with an astonishing 534 concentrated in the Karapınar district alone. Many of these craters measure up to 100 feet across and plunge hundreds of feet deep, swallowing farmland and rendering nearby fields too dangerous to cultivate. While no residential areas have collapsed yet, farmers are abandoning plots and losing critical income as the ground continues to give way.

The cause is a combination of severe drought, increasingly erratic weather patterns, and decades of intensive groundwater pumping for irrigation. Reservoirs have fallen to their lowest levels in 15 years, and aquifer levels have dropped by tens of meters since the early 2000s. In a karst landscape made of soluble limestone, this combination is disastrous. As the water table collapses, underground cavities expand and weaken, causing sudden surface failures that create massive sinkholes.

More than 20 new large sinkholes emerged in Karapınar just last year, underscoring how rapidly the situation is deteriorating. Geological studies from the Turkish Geological Survey confirm that climate-driven drought and unsustainable groundwater extraction are accelerating subsidence across the region. Without immediate intervention, experts warn the damage could permanently reshape the Konya Plain and undermine the nation’s agricultural stability.

Officials have called for tighter water management, reduced reliance on groundwater pumping, and long-term reforms to protect the region’s food supply. However, local farmers report slow progress and increasing fear as new sinkholes appear with little warning.

The crisis serves as a stark reminder of how environmental stress, mismanagement, and prolonged drought can combine to destabilize entire regions. For Turkey’s heartland, the consequences are becoming harder to ignore—and increasingly dangerous.