Boletín de la Sociedad Geológica Mexicana Volumen 65, núm. 1, 2013, p. 157-167 http://dx.doi.org/10.18268/BSGM2013v65n1a12

Effects of regional subsidence and earthquakes on architectural monuments in Mexico City

Efraín Ovando-Shelley^1,*, Alexandra Ossa¹, Enrique Santoyo²

¹ Instituto de Ingeniería, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Circuito Escolar sn, Ciudad Universitaria, C.P. 04510, México D.F., Mexico.
² TGC Geotecnia S. A. de C. V., Adolfo Prieto #1238, Col. Del Valle, Del. Benito Juárez, México D.F., 03100, Mexico.

^* This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 Abstract

Mexico City is mostly located over extremely soft lacustrine clays that have been undergoing a consolidation process due to the exploitation of the aquifers underlying these soils. Therefore, the city has been sinking and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future; resulting differential settlements have constantly damaged most of the city’s architectural heritage. México City is located within a high seismicity zone. Earthquakes have also damaged the city’s architectural treasures and will continue to be threatened by them in the future. In this paper it is described the way in which these two hazards have affected monuments in the past, and at the ways in which they may as well be combined in the future to pose further threats. In order to do that, it is considered the change of the properties of the subsoil as a result of the futures changes of pore pressures within the clays, and of the resulting effective stress increments in the seismic response of the soft lacustrine clay deposits.

Keywords: Historic monuments, regional subsidence, earthquakes.