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Boletín de la Sociedad Geológica Mexicana
http://dx.doi.org/10.18268/BSGM2006v58n2a3 |
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La importancia de la geología en el estudio de los procesos de remoción en masa: el caso de Totomoxtla, Sierra Norte de Puebla, México
Lucia Capra1,*, José Lugo-Hubp2, José Juan Zamorano- Orózco2
1Centro de Geociencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Campus Juriquilla, Querétaro, Qro. 76230, México.
2Instituto de Geografía, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Coyoacán, 04510 México D.F., México.
* This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Abstract
Every year mass movement affect densely populated areas anywhere in the world. In Mexico, during the hurricane season mountain regions are affected by different mass movement processes such as rotational landslides and debris flows. The Sierra Norte de Puebla was affected by an intense hydro-meteorologic event at the beginning of October, 1999, which generated thousands of movements. The larger landslides were generated in unstable slopes due to the presence of geologic-structural, such as interbedded sequence of limestones and deformed rocks that constitute the limbs of large folds. The landslide happened in the town of Totomoxtla is a clear example of such instability, where the sliding mass transformed into a cohesive debris flow due to the water saturation of the clay-bearing metamorphic beds. This flow was able to transport blocks of more than a meter in diameter, up to great distances. Only with the aim of a detailed geologic-structural study it will be possible to generate susceptibility maps that can really demonstrate the threatened zones and thus propose the temporary relocation of some houses during the rain seasons.
Keywords: Sierra Norte de Puebla, Totomoxtla, Zapotitlán de Méndez, landslide, cohesive debris flows.
