Seismic response of the Mexico City Basin: A review of twenty years of research

Mexico City, political and economic center of Mexico, was founded in a lake, at more than 2000 m above sea level. The lacustrine mud under the downtown area is associated with high seismic risk. Twenty years after the destructive 1985 earthquake (Ms = 8.1) we review published research on seismic response in the Mexico Basin, especially seismic and microtremor studies on soft ground and the influence of the seismic response of lake mud on damage.

[1]  H. Kawase,et al.  A Comprehensive Interpretation of Strong Motions in the Mexican Volcanic Belt , 2004 .

[2]  Raúl J. Marsal,et al.  El subsuelo de la Ciudad de México. , 1959 .

[3]  F. Chávez-García,et al.  Strong Motion in Central Mexico: A Model Based on Data Analysis and Simple Modeling , 2002 .

[4]  F. Chávez-García,et al.  Surface-wave dispersion analysis in Mexico City , 1995, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America.

[5]  M. Campillo,et al.  The Mexico Earthquake of September 19, 1985—The Incident Wavefield in Mexico City during the Great Michoacán Earthquake and Its Interaction with the Deep Basin , 1988 .

[6]  T. Seligman,et al.  Possible resonance effect in the distribution of earthquake damage in Mexico City , 1987, Nature.

[7]  M. P. Romo,et al.  The Mexico Earthquake of September 19, 1985—Relationships between Soil Conditions and Earthquake Ground Motions , 1988 .

[8]  S. K. Singh,et al.  Analysis of wave propagation in the Valley of Mexico from a dense array of seismometers , 1996, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America.

[9]  Mario Ordaz,et al.  The Mexico Earthquake of September 19, 1985—A Study of Amplification of Seismic Waves in the Valley of Mexico with Respect to a Hill Zone Site , 1988 .

[10]  S. K. Singh,et al.  Evidence of the dominance of higher-mode surface waves in the lake-bed zone of the Valley of Mexico , 2001 .

[11]  F. Sánchez-Sesma,et al.  A Virtual Reference Site for the Valley of Mexico , 2002 .

[12]  Francisco J. Sánchez-Sesma,et al.  Surface‐wave propagation across the Mexican Volcanic Belt and the origin of the long‐period seismic‐wave amplification in the Valley of Mexico , 1997 .

[13]  G. A. Perez-Cruz Estudio Sismológico de Reflexión del Subsuelo de la Ciudad de Mexico , 1988 .

[14]  Jorge López Blanco,et al.  Mapeo geomorfológico analítico de la porción central de la Cuenca de México: unidades morfogenéticas a escala 1:100,000 , 2002 .

[15]  C. Lomnitz Mexico 1985: the case for gravity waves , 1990 .

[16]  J. Lermo,et al.  The Mexico Earthquake of September 19, 1985—Natural Period of Sites in the Valley of Mexico from Microtremor Measurements and Strong Motion Data , 1988 .

[17]  Y Nakamura,et al.  A METHOD FOR DYNAMIC CHARACTERISTICS ESTIMATION OF SUBSURFACE USING MICROTREMOR ON THE GROUND SURFACE , 1989 .

[18]  Shri Krishna Singh,et al.  Estimation of Ground Motions in the Valley of Mexico from Normal-Faulting, Intermediate-Depth Earthquakes in the Subducted Cocos Plate , 1995 .

[19]  J. F. Hall,et al.  Factors contributing to the catastrophe in Mexico City during the earthquake of September 19, 1985 , 1986 .

[20]  F. Chávez-García,et al.  Site effects in Mexico City: Constraints from surface wave inversion of shallow refraction data , 1997 .

[21]  J. Pacheco,et al.  Evidence of low Q below Popocatépetl Volcano, and its implication to seismic hazard in Mexico City , 2000 .

[22]  L. E. Pérez-Rocha,et al.  The Mexico Earthquake of September 19, 1985—On the Seismic Response of the Valley of Mexico , 1988 .

[23]  P. Birkle,et al.  The water balance for the Basin of the Valley of Mexico and implications for future water consumption , 1998 .

[24]  C. Lomnitz,et al.  A same-day overflight in the epicentral area of the great Mexico earthquake of 19 September 1985 , 1985 .

[25]  P. Bard,et al.  Site effects in Mexico City eight years after the September 1985 Michoacan earthquakes , 1994 .

[26]  Keiiti Aki,et al.  A study on the response of a soft basin for incident S, P, and Rayleigh waves with special reference to the long duration observed in Mexico City , 1989 .

[27]  Francisco J. Chávez-García,et al.  The contribution of the built environment to the ‘free-field’ ground motion in Mexico City , 2002 .

[28]  Gail M. Atkinson,et al.  The 26 January 2001 M 7.6 Bhuj, India, Earthquake: Observed and Predicted Ground Motions , 2002 .

[29]  Resonant response models for the Valley of Mexico—II. The trapping of horizontal P waves , 1993 .

[30]  M. Campillo,et al.  The Mexico Earthquake of September 19, 1985—A Theoretical Investigation of Large- and Small-scale Amplification Effects in the Mexico City Valley , 1988 .

[31]  Raúl R. Castro,et al.  Some aspects of source characteristics of the 19 September 1985 Michoacan earthquake and ground motion amplification in and near Mexico City from strong motion data , 1988 .

[32]  L. Pérez-Rocha,et al.  Ground motion in Mexico City during the April 25, 1989, Guerrero earthquake , 1993 .

[33]  B. Kennett,et al.  On the nature of regional seismic phases—III. The influence of crustal heterogeneity on the wavefield for subduction earthquakes: the 1985 Michoacan and 1995 Copala, Guerrero, Mexico earthquakes , 1998 .

[34]  Shri Krishna Singh,et al.  The Mexico Earthquake of September 19, 1985—An Empirical Model to Predict Fourier Amplitude Spectra of Horizontal Ground Motion , 1988 .

[35]  H. Kanamori,et al.  Source characteristics of the 1985 Michoacan, Mexico Earthquake at periods of 1 to 30 seconds , 1986 .

[36]  Keiiti Aki,et al.  Space and Time Spectra of Stationary Stochastic Waves, with Special Reference to Microtremors , 1957 .

[37]  C. Lomnitz,et al.  Seismic coupling of interface modes in sedimentary basins: A recipe for disaster , 1999 .

[38]  Francisco J. Chávez-García,et al.  Site effect evaluation at Mexico City: Dominant period and relative amplification from strong motion and microtremor records , 1994 .

[39]  Mario Ordaz,et al.  On the origin of long coda observed in the lake-bed strong-motion records of Mexico City , 1993, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America.

[40]  S. K. Singh,et al.  Is there truly a “hard” rock site in the Valley of Mexico? , 1995 .

[41]  Mario Ordaz,et al.  Spectral Ratios for Mexico City from Free-Field Recordings , 1999 .