Earthquakes are a common phenomenon in Mexico, as the country is located in an area of “high seismicity”, according to the National Seismological Service (SSN).
Five tectonic plates interact there: the North American, Cocos, Pacific, Rivera and Caribbean plates.
“Mexico is an extremely seismically active country. Last year, the National Seismic Service recorded 15,400 earthquakes,” Xyoli Pérez Campos, head of Mexico’s National Seismological Service, told a press conference in 2017.
Each tectonic plate moves across the earth in a “whimsical” way, as Víctor Espíndola, head of SSN analysts, explained to CNN in Spanish and when two of these plates meet, they release a huge amount of force that deforms the earth’s crust, something that can only be seen with proper measuring instruments.
“When this material can no longer accumulate so much energy, it breaks”, says Espíndola. “Just like a plastic ruler when it bends: it breaks,” she adds.
And what happened in the deadly earthquake of September 2017, which left hundreds dead, was that the Cocos plate passed under the North American plate and “when the material of that plate breaks, it generates movement”, explained Pérez Campos at the press conference. of press.
Biggest movement in the south
The entire earth’s crust is fragmented and each plate has its own movement, says Espíndola. In the northern part of Mexico these plates move at about 3 centimeters per year, while in the south the speed can reach 7 centimeters per year, explained the expert.
“The relative movement between these plates, in the part of the Gulf of Tehuantepec (in the south of the country), is greater, which is why one of the states and its coasts where the most seismic activity is recorded is in Chiapas and Oaxaca,” he said.
The head of the SSN warned that there could be aftershocks that could reach magnitudes of up to 7 points.
“However, we don’t know when or how big they will be,” Pérez Campos said. “The recommendation for the population is to be attentive,” he said.
Increase in earthquake record
Between January 1, 1990 and September 8, 2017, more than 86,000 earthquakes of different magnitudes were recorded in Mexico. About 15 earthquakes below 2 degrees occur every day, according to statistics from the National Seismological Service.
For two decades, there has been a gradual increase in the number of earthquakes in Mexican territory.
But while it went from 796 earthquakes recorded in 1990 — most of them with a magnitude between 4 and 4.9 — to 15,281 earthquakes in 2016 — most of them with an average magnitude between 3 and 3.9 — Espíndola says there is reason to be alarmed. , as it is an improvement in measurement systems.
“In the past, there were very few instruments available and the sensitivity of the instruments became more refined,” he says.
“This does not mean that seismicity increases over the years,” he adds. “It’s just that there’s more instrumentation,” she concluded.
* Editor’s Note: Text produced in 2017 and updated in September 2022
Source: CNN Brasil
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