A “crack” just over 1 kilometer long located in the west of the Mexico City could be the cause of causing low intensity earthquakes or microseisms, researchers from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
The geologic fault normal type in the area of Silversmiths to Mixcoac (west) was located a few days ago by researchers from the Engineering Institute (II) of the UNAM and “could be the cause of the tremors recently recorded in that area of the country's capital,” as a study preliminarily revealed.
The researchers Leonardo Ramírez Guzmán, Jorge Aguirre González and Moisés Contreras Ruiz Esparza They explained in a press conference that from December 3, 2023 to January 10, 2024 “23 earthquakes were recorded with magnitudes ranging from 1.1 to 3.2”, in the municipalities Magdalena Contreras and Álvaro Obregónwith depths less than 1.4 kilometers.
They specified that the fault begins, approximately, towards the west of the Periférico Ring, it passes through an avenue Revolutionup to about 300 meters to the east, according to what is observed on the surface “which is only the visible expression of the faulting, so the entire place is being reviewed using various instruments” and for the moment, its depth is also being investigated.
It is due to the accumulation of tension in the region, and possibly also to the subsidence of the Valley of Mexico and the recharge of the aquifer in the Sierra de las Cruces.
Regarding what causes these earthquakes, they believe that the reactivation of this fault, which they have proposed to call Plateros-Mixcoac, “is due to the accumulation of tension in the region, and possibly also to the sinking of the Valley of Mexico and the recharge of the aquifer in the Sierra de las Cruces, which feeds the metropolitan area”.
They explained that given the importance of these earthquakes and their possible damage, the coordination of Seismological Engineering and the Seismic Instrumentation Unit, both of the II, “installed 15 recording stations with sensors that check the speed and acceleration.”
They indicated that the network has recorded continuously, from the third week of December 2023 to the beginning of February 2024“which made it possible to specify the epicenters of the earthquakes reported by the National Seismological Service (SSN) and verify their distribution.”
“This made it possible find a 'crack' of just over a kilometer in length that uninterruptedly crosses the Mixcoac area, which has been confirmed with permanent deformations in the soil that requires a more in-depth analysis,” they noted.
“It is important that we have corroborated not only the superficial expression – which is the crack – but that we have seen it with both the epicenters and the deformations on the surface and it allows us to see that it is not something superficial, but rather the occurrence of an earthquake that is below the ground,” they concluded.
In mid-December, after the numerous earthquakes experienced in those days in the Mexican capital and while citizens wonder about the real risk of these events, the UNAM seismologist, Víctor Manuel Cruz Atienza pointed out that a “swarm of microseisms” could be affecting Mexico City.
EFE
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