Surface-wave propagation across the Mexican Volcanic Belt and the origin of the long-period seismic-wave amplification in the Valley of Mexico


Por: Shapiro N.M., Campillo M., Paul A., Singh S.K., Jongmans D., Sánchez-Sesma F.J.

Publicada: 1 ene 1997
Resumen:
A network of nine broad-band seismographs was operated from March to May 1994 to study the propagation of seismic waves across the Mexican Volcanic Belt (MVB) in the region of the Valley of Mexico. Analysis of the data from the network reveals an amplification of seismic waves in a wide period band at the stations situated in the southern part of the MVB. The group velocities of the fundamental mode of the Rayleigh wave in the period range 2-13s are found to be lower in the southern part of the MVB than in its northern part and in the region south of the MVB. The inversion of dispersion curves shows that the difference in group velocities is due to the presence of a superficial low-velocity layer (with an average S-wave velocity of 1.7 km s-1 and an average thickness of 2 km) beneath the southern part of the MVB. This low-velocity zone is associated with the region of active volcanism. Numerical simulations show that this superficial low-velocity layer causes a regional amplification of 8-10s period signals, which is of the same order as the amplification measured from the data. This layer also increases the signal duration significantly because of the dispersion of the surface waves. These results confirm the hypothesis of Singh et al (1995), who suggested that the regional amplification observed in the Valley of Mexico is due to the anomalously low shear-wave velocity of the shallow volcanic rocks in the southern MVB.

Filiaciones:
Shapiro N.M.:
 Lab. de Geophys. Int./Tectonophys., UA CNRS 733, Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, France

Campillo M.:
 Lab. de Geophys. Int./Tectonophys., UA CNRS 733, Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, France

Paul A.:
 Lab. de Geophys. Int./Tectonophys., UA CNRS 733, Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, France

Singh S.K.:
 Instituto de Geofísica, Univ. Natl. Auton. de México, México DF, Mexico

Jongmans D.:
 Lab. Geol. l'Ingenieur/d'Hydrogeol., Université de Liège, Liège, Belgium

Sánchez-Sesma F.J.:
 Instituto de Ingenería, Univ. Natl. Auton. de México, México DF, Mexico
ISSN: 0956540X
Editorial
OXFORD UNIV PRESS, GREAT CLARENDON ST, OXFORD OX2 6DP, ENGLAND, Reino Unido
Tipo de documento: Article
Volumen: 128 Número: 1
Páginas: 151-166
WOS Id: A1997WC16600010
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