(Mexico City) Mexican scientists have confirmed the existence of a seismic fault beneath a dense urban area in western Mexico City, after studying the origin of several earthquakes that occurred in the capital between December and January.
The existence of this fault, called the “Platros-Mexcoac fault,” has already been raised in academic conversations and even suggested in the hazard map of Mexico City, but has never been confirmed,” notes a study conducted by the Engineering Institute of the State of Mexico. The Autonomous National Council of Mexico (UNAM) on Thursday.
Those responsible for this study had installed mobile stations that allowed for an “unprecedented analysis” of seismic activity in the western region of the capital.
Scientists identified the foci of earthquakes recorded in December and January, and found discrepancies with previous estimates by the National Seismological Service.
“We were surprised to find a crack just over a kilometer long and running almost continuously through the Mixcoc area,” a middle-class neighborhood criss-crossed by large roads and home to residential and commercial areas.
The UNAM study was launched after 23 “micro-earthquakes” felt mainly west of Mexico City from December 3 to January 10, ranging in magnitude from 1.1 to 3.2 magnitudes and depths of less than 1.4 km.
The report notes that “the dimensions and potential of the Platrus-Mixquac fault” are still being studied.
“The impact it may have on construction has not been determined and estimates are not being used in the area [pour la construction] The existence of the defect was not taken into account,” the experts confirm.
Mexico is located between five tectonic plates, whose movements make it one of the most seismically active countries in the world, especially along the Pacific coast, from the border with Guatemala to the state of Jalisco (west).
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