This article is devoted to the investigation of soil surface subsidence caused by the production of fluids (water, oil and gas). It first describes the methods available for measuring this subsidence, methods that have become extremely accurate today. Cases are selected from the literature to identify the mechanisms causing subsidence: reservoir and aquifer compaction associated with depletion, mechanisms connected with fluid injections in specific cases (thermal creep, action of water on chalk). These mechanisms must be taken into account by models progressively enriched with geological, petrophysical and mechanical descriptions, substantiated by in situ measurements. Subsidence control demands the control of the in situ pressure, maintained by a fluid compatible with the formation. If this control is applied early enough, the risk of subsidence is virtually nit.