Boletín de la Sociedad Geológica Mexicana Número Especial de Geología Urbana VOL. 58, Núm. 2, 2006, p. 195-204 http://dx.doi.org/10.18268/BSGM2006v58n2a2

Landslide inventory map of Guadalupe Range, north of the Mexico Basin

Armando García-Palomo^1,2,*, Víctor Carlos-Valerio², Celia López-Miguel², Adriana Galván-García², Aline Concha-Dimas¹

¹Departamento de Geología Regional, Instituto de Geología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Coyoacán, 04510, Mexico D.F.
²Servicio Geológico Metropolitano, Instituto de Geología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Coyoacán, 04510, Mexico D.F. y Dirección General de Protección Civil Gobierno del Distrito Federal

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

Abstract

The Guadalupe Range (GR) is one of the several volcanic chains in the Mexico Basin and is located in its north-central portion. Four municipalities of the State of Mexico-Tlalnepantla, Tultitlan, Ecatepec, Coacalco- and one precinct in Mexico City -Delegation Gustavo A. Madero- surround the Guadalupe range. During the last decades the settlements in these areas have experienced substantial population growth. In the 1960´s, the communities had 744,905 people, and by 2000, the population was of 4 152,350 peoples. Nowadays, the population of these municipalities is growing towards the GR. However, the natural conditions of GR such as its geology, geomorphology and climate; along with human factors such as deforestation, changes of original slope, heavy-traffic transit and mining, have create the conditions for the occurrence of landslides that affect the population of these areas.

We identified and characterized 206 landslide sites in the Guadalupe Ranges. The mechanism most frequently found was toppling and rock fall, followed by, wedge, translational and rotational failure, debris flow, creep or a combination of these mechanisms. Slope failures were identified through erosive landforms, horseshoe head and flanks and tectonic features such as fault scarpments and fractures. From the identified landslides, and the natural and human conditions that motivate their occurrence, it is established that a landslides seriously threaten the communities of Tlalnepantla, Ecatepec, Coacalco, Tultitlan and Gustavo A. Madero. According with adverse geological and geomorphic condition on Guadalupe range it is necessary to propose a landslides inventory map, goal of this paper.

Keywords: Mexico Basin, Guadalupe Ranges, Landslides, horseshoe- shaped landform, faults.