Soil DynamicsandEarthquakeEngineering15 (1996) 141-146

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ELSEVIER

Short Note

Site effects in Mexico City urban zone. A

complementary study
Francisco J. Chavez-Garcia* & Julio Cuenca
lnstituto de Ingenieria, UNAM, Ciudad Universitaria, Apdo. Postal 70-472, Coyoacrn 04510, M~xico D.F., Mexico

Communicated by F. J. S~nchez-Sesma
(Received 25 July 1995; accepted 26 July 1995)

Site ,effectsare a major factor affectingseismicrisk at Mexico City conurbation and

haw: been carefully studied. However, most of the studies and instrumentation
com~ntrate in Mexico City. We present an evaluation of site effectsin the counties
of Estado de Mexico, to the North of Mexico City, that have been incorporated
into Mexico City conurbation. We measured microtremors at 67 points and
operated a temporal digital seismograph network. Our results allow us to extend
the .dominant period map of Mexico City to the heavily populated and indus-
trialized counties of Estado de Mexico. Additionally, we propose a map of
maximum relative amplification. Both maps are consistent with local geology,
and could be useful for microzonation of this region.

Key words: site effects,Mexico City conurbation, microtremors, dominant period.

INTRODUCTION The results included a detailed and robust map of

Site effects play a major role in the seismic risk facing
Mexico City. The soft clay layers in the lake zone of
Mexico City have been shown to amplify ground motion
by a factor up to 50 in the frequency band 0"3-0"7Hz. 1
All of the damage observed during the September 1985
earthquakes occurred in the lake zone. Accelerographic
data recorded during this event made clear that there had
been little, if any, non-linear behavior of the clay layer.l
Strong ground motion in Mexico City is thus condi-
tioned, in a large part, by site effects that can be described
using ID one-layer, linear models. In a recent paper)
available data was analyzed in terms of these simple
models. The data included accelerograms recorded at the
more than 100 digital accelerometers installed in Mexico
City and 409 measurement points of microtremors.
*Centro de Investigaci6n Sismica, A.C., Fundaci6n Javier
Barros Sierra, Camino al Ajusco 203, Tlalpan 14200 Mrxico
D.F., Mexico
141
dominant periods within the City. Additionally a map
of maximum amplification of ground motion relative to
firm ground was produced for the sites instrumented
with accelerometers.
To date, all of the instrumentation and field studies
have concentrated in the Distrito Federal. The reasons
are that damages during past earthquakes have concen-
trated in the lake bed zone within Mexico City, and that
most of the studies (as well as the new strong motion
network) have been financed by the government of
Mexico City. However, the urbanization of Mexico
City does not stop on the legal boundaries between
Distrito Federal and Estado de Mexico. There are sev-
eral counties, belonging to Estado de Mexico, that have
been incorporated into Mexico City conurbation. In fact,
these counties concentrate most of the 'Mexico City's
industry'. Additionally, as real state value is lower,
construction of popular housing has proceeded in this
region at an accelerated pace. In all of this region no
strong motion instrument operates and, to the best of the
author's knowledge, no study of site effects has been
142 F. J. Chavez-Garcia, J. Cuenca

at-T
CTL
0
0 0
0 • 0
0
• •
al • •
• •
TTL • • •
0 0
at-T • • /""~ /
Bvo

.o
0 !
• 81

t'-" ~" ~/ , ~;-. • ~0 at'T al O

• • •
at-T / ", 0 O

19,70 .

~ 19.~

19.45

~ 19.40

19.35

19.30

19.25

19.20
- 9 9 . 2 0 -99.10 -99.00 -98.90
l,.,oniitude

Fig. 1. Geological map of the region of interest. Simplified after Cetenal. 3 Open circles correspond to the points where we measured
microtremors. Triangles show location of seismographs. The dotted line shows the political limit between Mexico City and Estado de
Mexico. A: andesite. By: volcanic breccia, ar-T: sandstone interlayered with tuff. T: andesitic tuff. al: alluvium.

done. The purpose of this note is to present results of an dominant period and maximum relative amplification
effort towards determination of site effects in those in this region.
counties of Estado de Mexico, incorporated into
Mexico City conurbation. To this end, we measured
microtremors at 67 points in the area, and installed GEOLOGY
and operated a temporal seismograph network. Our
results supplement to the north the maps presented by Figure 1 shows a simplified map o f surface geology in the
Lermo & Ch~vez-Garcia 2 and give an estimate o f region of interest. 3 Geology is different from that of
 Site effects in Mexico City urban zone
Mexico City valley, and it is not possible to extend the
geotechnical zoning. In this re#on, the heights of Sierra
de Guadalupe attain 2900 m and are formed by andesitic
rocks. Additionally, there are some outcrops of volcanic
breccia and andesitic tuff. Alluvial fans surround the hills
and consist of sandstone interlayered with tuff, suggest-
ing a complex sequence of periods of intense and weak
volcanic activity. Recent alluvium fills the valleys. In
small parts of the plain, surficial sediments consist of
lacustrine deposits, similar to those of the lake-bed zone
in Mexico City, however very limited in extension.
Figure 1 has been simplified, as we assimilated lacustrine
deposits into alluvial deposits. We have assumed that
outcrops of andesite, volcanic breccia and tuff can be
assimilated with rock and/to site effect is to be expected
there. We expect large variability in the response of the
sandstone-tuff deposits due,' to their large lithology var-
iation from outcrop to outcrop. Finally, we expect
significant site effects on the alluvial deposits, however
dominant periods are likely to be low, as we anticipate
small thickness of the deposits.
MICROTREMOR DATA
We measured microtremor,; at 67 points in the area (Fig.
1). The equipment used was three seismometers of 0"5 s
period by kinemetrics coupled to a DR-100 seismograph
by Sprengnether. Signals were digitized at 100 sps, multi-
plexed and recorded on magnetic tape. At each point we
recorded 2 windows of noise, of 1 min each. From these
records, 4-6 windows were selected for the analysis.
Different techniques have been used to interpret micro-
tremor measurements. They were compared and evalu-
ated by Lermo & Chfivez-Garcia.4 They showed that the
best results were obtained with the spectral ratio of
horizontal motion relative to the vertical component at
the same site (horizontal to vertical spectral ratio or
HVSR technique). An example of the results is shown
on Fig. 2. We observe a good agreement among different
windows, and between both horizontal components. The
NS/Z EW/Z
100.0
,o.o A /v
0.1 . . .
0.1
. . .
1.0
. . .
10.0 0.1 1.0
Frequency [Hz] Frequency [Hz]
Fig. 2. An example of HVSF transfer functions from micro-
tremor data. Each line con:esponds to a window of data.
143
simple shape of the transfer functions and the good
agreement between both horizontal components suggest
that site effects are due to a simple geological structure
and are probably of 1D nature. Results for other points
are similar, except at ten points where HVSR curves
showed no resonance, i.e. those points are free from site
effects. We could estimate dominant period (To) and
maximum relative amplification (At) from a total of 57
points.
WEAK MOTION DATA
We operated a weak motion digital network within the
area of interest for two months. The instruments used
were PRS-4 solid state memory seismographs by Scintrex
coupled to L-3D 1 Hz seismometers by Lennartz. How-
ever, due to the low seismic activity during that period,
and to the very high background noise in the area, we
could record only one event at three stations. None of
these three sites was on firm soil, and thus we could not
use the standard spectral ratio technique. 5'6 This is the
reason why we computed empirical transfer functions
(ETF) using again the HVSR technique. The application
of HVSR to earthquake records was proposed by Lermo
& Chfivez-Garcia,7 where the details of the computation
10.0
CTL~
'I
1.0
10.0
1.0 "] ' ~'.'~k
10.0 TI~.
J,
1.0
, i • • ,
10.0
1.0 10.0
Frequency [l-Iz]
Fig, 3. Empirical transfer functions obtained from HVSR for
the only earthquake record obtained in the study. Continuous
line: NS component. Dashed line: EW component.
144 F. J. Chavez-Garcia, J. Cuenca

19.70 0.4

'

19.65

19.60

19.55 1

2
0.5

19.50
%
ea
| •
%

k
I
19.45
!

B*mm

e Q " O :" ,'" " .,..

~
• , t..". ",.
19.40
"".2 ......... "

19.35 ~ : . ...... . . . _ / " - - \ ~.

;~- / ~.

. "--..
...-f.-:'

19.30

19.25
6 5"kta ............. " T "-."
•, "....
I I , .I I I | II

-99.20 -99.15 -99.10 99.05 -99.00 -98.95

Longitude (degrees)

Fig. 4. Contours of dominant period for the region studied in this paper. We have pasted Fig. 10 of Lermo & Ch~vez-Garcia2 at the
same scale. Open circles show the points where we measured microtremors.

are presented. The results are shown in Fig. 3. The ETF
shown are not reliable below 1 Hz given the natural
frequency of the seismometers. We observe a good
agreement between both horizontal components at each
point. Site resonance appears at 2 Hz at CTL, 3 Hz at
T T L and near 2 Hz at TLA. Maximum amplification
varies very much, from 5 at CTL to between 10 and 20 at
TLA. The ETF shown in Fig. 3 are very similar to those
obtained from microtremor measurements at the same
sites (not shown). This suggests that microtremor mea-
surements are adequate to characterize site effects in this
region.
 Site effects in Mexico City urban zone 145

.4 0

o
0

• •

4)

~° ,
i

I
/i
I1
I

t"
t

km

~ 19.45
19.40

19.35
19.30
19,25

19.20 -99'.20 ' -99'.10 -99.00 -91.90

Loo|ltude

Fig. 5. Contours of maximum relative amplification in the area of interest. Open circles show the points where we measured
microtremors.

DISCUSSION importance of avoiding the coincidence of dominant

Our results are based mainly on analysis of microtremor
records. However, we obtained a good agreement
between HVSR for microtremors and HVSR for weak
motion records. This suggests that HVSR adequately
reflects expected site effects independently of the nature
of the ground motion record analyzed. The importance
of dominant period is well known. In Mexico City, the
period of the structure with that of the soil has been
shown. 8 Figure 4 shows the contours of dominant period
obtained from our microtremor measurements. We have
included the dominant period map presented in Lermo &
Ch/tvez-Garcia,2 which is constrained between 19.25°
and 19"5° latitude. To the north of 19'5 ° the definition
of geotechnical zoning does not exist. Furthermore, the
geological basis used to distinguish between lake zone
146 F . J . Chavez-Garcia, J. Cuenca
and hill zone in Mexico City does not apply in Estado de
Mexico, although there are significant differences
between rock and alluvial deposits. Dominant periods
are much lower than those at Mexico City, which may be
due to thinner alluvial deposits or higher shear wave
velocity. We suspect a combination of both factors.
Contours of maximum relative amplification are
shown in Fig. 5. An equivalent figure was not presented
by Lermo & Chfivez-Garcia. 2 Figure 5 could be drawn
due to the smooth variation of Ar in the region studied.
Maximum values occur to the SE and are clearly related
to the soft deposits of Texcoco lake. The values on this
figure suggest that shear wave velocities of the surficial
sediments are significantly larger than those at Mexico
City, where Ar attains values larger than 30.
CONCLUSIONS
We have presented a study of site effects in the counties
of Estado de Mexico conurbated with Mexico City. Our
results allowed us to extend the dominant period map to
the north, including heavily populated and industrialized
parts of Mexico City conurbation. Given that geology is
different from that of Mexico City, it is not possible to
extend the geotechnical zoning in this region. We could
also propose a map of maximum relative amplification
for this region. Our results show that dominant periods
are significantly shorter than those at Mexico City. This,
together with the moderate values of Ar suggest the
thickness of alluvial deposits is smaller and shear wave
velocities are larger than those on the soft deposits of
Mexico City. This allows one to understand that no
damage was sustained in this region during the large
Michoacan earthquake of September 1985. However,
smaller events with closer epicentral distance (for
example from the Acambay graben 9) may have more
energy at higher frequencies and may be potentially very
damaging. This underscores the importance of installing
permanent strong motion stations and of pursuing stu-
dies in this area.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This study was financed by the Mexican Association of
Insurance Institutions. The comments of F. J. Sfinchez-
Sesma greatly improved the manuscript.
REFERENCES
1. Singh, S. K., Mena, E. & Castro, R. Some aspects of source
characteristics and ground motion amplification in and
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Soc. Am., 1988, 78, 451-77.
2. Lermo, J. & Chfivez-Garcia, F. J. Site effect evaluation at
Mexico City: dominant period and relative amplification
from strong motion and microtremor records. Soil Dynam.
Earthq. Engng, 1994, 13, 413-23.
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1 : 50,000, 1979.
4. Lermo, J. & Chhvez-Garcia, F. J. Are microtremors useful
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