Ground fissuring is a recurrent problem in many countries where water extraction surpasses the natural recharge of aquifers. Due to differential settlements, the soil layer undergoes deformations and cracks with serious consequences for civil infrastructure. Here an approximate analysis of the fissuring process that can be used to predict the location of cracks is proposed. To that purpose, the ground loss theory is applied to highly compressible sediments overlying a sinusoidal shaped graben. This analysis shows the existence of tensile zones where tension cracks are more likely to appear.