Geology topics

Research about Valley of Mexico

Source-linked reports with geographic coverage including Valley of Mexico.

2 recordsLinked to original sources

USGS1997

Dynamic deformations of shallow sediments in the Valley of Mexico, Part I: Three-dimensional strains and rotations recorded on a seismic array

We study the spatial variation in earthquake ground motions, or equivalently the dynamic displacement gradient field, using a novel analysis procedure borrowed from geodesy. Seismic data recorded in the Valley of Mexico by a microarray of three three-component surface accelerographs and two three-component accelerographs at depths of 30 m and 102 m constrain our estimates of the dynamic displacement gradient field (from which strains and rotations derive) for four moderate earthquakes at distances of 250 to 300 km. Our study focuses on the effects of low-velocity surface materials on the deformation. At the surface, the gradients corresponding to deformation across vertical planes dominate, and vertical-axis rotations are of similar magnitudes as strains. The greatest peak surface gradient we observed was 206 μ strain for the 14 September 1995 M W 7.5 earthquake at a distance of ∼300 km. However, much larger gradients occur across horizontal planes ( ∂u/∂z , where u is a horizontal displacement and z is depth) at some depth between 0 and 30 m. These values are about a factor 10 greater than the corresponding gradient components at the surface. ∂u/∂z for the 14 September earthquake equaled or exceeded 665 μ strain at depth. The dynamic deformations experienced in Mexico City undoubtedly have occurred before and will occur again in other densely populated areas. However, in many other regions, the sediment response will not remain linear and elastic, resulting instead in liquefaction and ground failure.

Valley of Mexico↗

USGS1997

Dynamic deformations of shallow sediments in the Valley of Mexico, Part II: Single-station estimates

We develop simple relations to estimate dynamic displacement gradients (and hence the strains and rotations) during earthquakes in the lake-bed zone of the Valley of Mexico, where the presence of low-velocity, high-water content clays in the uppermost layers cause dramatic amplification of seismic waves and large strains. The study uses results from a companion article (Bodin et al. , 1997) in which the data from an array at Roma, a lake-bed site, were analyzed to obtain displacement gradients. In this article, we find that the deformations at other lake-bed sites may differ from those at Roma by a factor of 2 to 3. More accurate estimates of the dominant components of the deformation at an individual instrumented lake-bed site may be obtained from the maximum horizontal velocity and displacement, ν max and u max , at the surface. The maximum surface strain ɛ max is related to ν max by ɛ max = ν max / C , with C ∼ 0.6 km/sec. From the analysis of data from sites equipped with surface and borehole sensors, we find that the vertical gradient of peak horizontal displacement (Δ u max /Δ z ) computed from sensors at 0 and 30 m equals ( u max ) z=0 /Δ z , Δ z = 30 m, within a factor of 1.5. This is the largest gradient component, and the latter simple relation permits its estimation from surface records alone. The observed profiles of u max versus depth suggest a larger gradient in some depth range of 10 to 20 m, in agreement with synthetic calculations presented in Bodin et al. (1997).

Valley of Mexico↗