U.S.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

OPEN-FILE REPORT 20101083-F

Revised September, 2011

Seismicity of the Earth 19002010

TECTONIC SUMMARY

Mexico and Vicinity

Located atop three of the large tectonic plates, Mexico is one of the world's most seismologically active regions. The
relative motion of these crustal plates causes frequent earthquakes and occasional volcanic eruptions.

Compiled by Harley M. Benz, 1 Richard, L. Dart, 1 Antonio Villaseor, 2 Gavin P. Hayes, 1 Arthur C. Tarr, 1 Kevin P. Furlong, 3 and Susan Rhea 1

Most of the Mexican landmass is on the westward moving North America plate. The Pacific Ocean floor south of
Mexico is being carried northeastward by the underlying Cocos plate. Because oceanic crust is relatively dense,
when the Pacific Ocean floor encounters the lighter continental crust of the Mexican landmass, the ocean floor is
subducted beneath the North America plate creating the deep Middle America trench along Mexico's southern
coast. Also as a result of this convergence, the westward moving Mexico landmass is slowed and crumpled creating
the mountain ranges of southern Mexico and earthquakes near Mexico's southern coast. As the oceanic crust is
pulled downward, it melts; the molten material is then forced upward through weaknesses in the overlying
continental crust. This process has created a region of volcanoes across south-central Mexico known as the
Cordillera Neovolcnica.

PRE-INSTRUMENTAL SEISMICITY 15001899

1

Events causing deaths

U.S. Geological Survey

Institute of Earth Sciences, CSIC, Barcelona, Spain
3
Department of Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA 16802 USA
2

110

100

90

1812

UNITED STATES

2011

120

115

110

105

100

95

90

NA
Los
ND
RE
Angeles
AS

Santa Cruz I s.
Santa R osa I s.

30

30

Atlanta

Phoenix

FA
UL

Santa Catalina Is.

1887

85

SA

The area west of the Gulf of California, including Mexico's Baja California Peninsula, is moving northwestward
with the Pacific plate at about 95 mm per year. Here, the Pacific and North America plates grind past each other
creating strike-slip faulting, the southern extension of California's San Andreas fault. In the past, this relative plate
motion pulled Baja California away from the coast forming the Gulf of California and is the cause of earthquakes in
the Gulf of California region today.

MEXICO

San Clemente Is.

San
Diego

Mexicali

Dallas

UNITED

El Paso

STATES

1864
20

20

1870

BELIZE

Mobile

Ba

GUATEMALA

ja

Austin

Ca

1773 1874 HONDURAS

1873
1773
1854 1873

Jacksonville

li
fo

Houston

ia

I. de la Guardia

30

New Orleans

I. Tiburon

ul

Miss

Chihuahua

iss

ip

110

100

The earthquake locations shown on the main map (left) and on the depth profiles (lower left) are taken from the
global 19002007 Centennial catalog (Engdahl and Villaseor, 2002) and a catalog of high-quality depth
determinations for the period 19642002 (Engdahl, personal comm., 2003) .

90

Tampa

of

I. Cedros

DATA SOURCES AND MAP DISPLAY

Hermosillo
I sla G uadelupe
(Mexico)

NICARAGUA

rn

San
Antonio

Fa

30

Mexico has a long history of destructive earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. In September 1985, a magnitude 8.1
earthquake killed more than 9,500 people in Mexico City. In southern Mexico, Volcn de Colima and El Chichn
erupted in 2005 and 1982, respectively. Paricutn volcano, west of Mexico City, began venting smoke in a cornfield
in 1943; a decade later this new volcano had grown to a height of 424 meters. Popocatpetl and Ixtacchuatl
volcanos ("smoking mountain" and "white lady," respectively), southeast of Mexico City, occasionally vent gas that
can be clearly seen from the City, a reminder that volcanic activity is ongoing. In 1994 and 2000 Popocatpetl
renewed its activity forcing the evacuation of nearby towns, causing seismologists and government officials to be
concerned about the effect a large-scale eruption might have on the heavily populated region. Popocatpetl volcano
last erupted in 2010.

1568

Major earthquakes (7.5=M=8.2) are labeled with the year of occurrence, while earthquakes (8.0=M=8.2) are labeled
with the year of occurrence and also denoted by a white outline (Tarr and others, 2010).

al
if
or

The Seismic Hazard and Relative Plate Motion map (below) shows the generalized seismic hazard (Giardini and
others, 1999) and relative plate motion vectors (open arrows with labels; DeMets and others, 1994).

ni
a

MEXICO

Sig

Monterrey

sbe

e Esc arp

Saltillo
es

M
a

ro

le

a
n

Mexico Basin

San Jose Canyon

Bird, Peter, 2003, An updated digital model of plate boundaries: Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems, v. 4, no. 3, 52 p.

Ulloa
Knoll
Mazatlan
Basin

Isla del la
Juventud

Paricutin

2003

1995

Cuernavaca

1941
1973 1985

Isla Socorro

Popocatpetl

Isla Clarin

7.5

200

7.6

300

a Tr o
ugh

Puebla

Cayo Norte

Ixtaccihuatl

B'

1908

Cayo Lobos

1907

F.Z .
O ro z c o

ER

1928
1999 1928

1902

Isla de Utila

60

1978 1931

G U AT E M A L A

A
1917

B'

Plateau

Convergent

Giardini, D., Grnthal, G., Shedlock, K., Zhang, P., and Global Seismic Hazards Program, 1999, Global Seismic Hazards
Map, last accessed January, 2007 at http://www.seismo.ethz.ch/GSHAP/.

Hayes, Gavin, and Wald, David, 2010, Slab models for subduction zones: U.S. Geological Survey Earthquake Hazards
Program, last accessed July 22, 2010 at http://earthquake.usgs.gov/research/data/slab/.
NOAA National Geophysical Data Center, 2010, last accessed March 31, 2010 at http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/hazards.

Lightning Bank

069 km
70299 km
300700 km
Clipperto

n Ridge

e
g
id

EN

100

EL

15

SA

LVA

DO

o
olf

de

Fo

Teh a

I. Providencia
(Colombia)

NICARAGUA

a
sec

I. San Andreas
(Colombia)
I. Del Mais Grande

Managua
1992

pe
n te

2001

Tarr, A.C., Villaseor, Antonio, Furlong, K.P., Rhea, Susan, and Benz, H.M., 2010, Seismicity of the Earth 19002007:
U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Map 3064, scale 1:25,000,000.

Cayos Miskitos

Tegucigalpa

CH

Siebert, Lee, and Simkin, Thomas, 2002, Volcanoes of the worldAn illustrated catalog of Holocene volcanoes and their
eruptions: Smithsonian Institution, Global Volcanism Program Digital Information series, GVP-3, last accessed
January 9, 2007 at http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/.

Seismic Hazard and Relative Plate Motion

110

de a
go agu
La car
Ni

Depth of focus

1902
1942

ISE
FIC R

Inferred

GEBCO, 2008, The GEBCO_08_Grid, ver. 20091120, last accessed January 8, 2010 at http://www.gebco.net/.

Divergent

TR

PA C I

Albatross

Transform

8.2

AN

San Pedro
Sula

te

Subduction

8.1

NC

1976

Plate boundaries

8.0

AY M

E
TR

1950

EAST

600

7.9

man

ge

HONDURAS

500

7.8

Grand Cayman I.

ia
Bah
e la Isla de Guanaja
d
s
Isla
Isla de la Roatn

Gulf of
Honduras

400

7.7

ESRI, 2002, ESRI data and maps: Redlands, Calif., ESRI. Available at http://www.esri.com/data/data-maps/index.html.

Caym

Tuxtla Gutierrez

IC

Turneffe Is.

BELIZE

1911 1957

AM

si

Rid

Acapulco

1909

Cay

Villahermosa

100

1928

Moct

100

El Chichn

LE

20

Veracruz

1911

DD

Isla Cozumel

Yu c a ta n
Peninsula

15

60 km

77.4

MI

ezum

Mean slab depth

6.56.9

60

1985 1979

MAP EXPLANATION

Mexico
City

Toluca

Engdahl, E.R., and Villaseor, Antonio, 2002, Global seismicity: 19001999, in Lee, W.H.K., Kanamori, Hiroo, Jennings,
P.C, and Kisslinger, Carl, eds., International Handbook of Earthquake and Engineering Seismology: San Diego,
Calif., Academic Press, v. 81(A), Chap. 41, p. 665690.

of

C a m p e c h e

A'

1932

Isla Benedicto

Bay

Queretaro

Morelia

1932

Active volcanoes

Digital Chart of the World, 1992: http://earth-info.nga.mil/publications/specs/printed/89009/89009_DCW.pdf, last

accessed Mar. 9, 1996.

Merida

Guadalajara

Isla Roca Partida

66.4

Isla Mara Madre

Isla Mara Magdalena
Isla Mara Cleofas

20

Magnitude classes

DeMets, Charles, Gordon, R.G., Argus, D.F., and Stein, Seth, 1994, Effect of recent revisions to the geomagnetic reversal
time scale on estimates of current plate motions: Geophysical Research Letters, v. 21, p. 21912194.

Tampico

San Luis
Potosi

Aguascalientes

Tres Marias
Basin
canyon
Banderas

F.Z.

CUBA

Campeche Bank

Islas Maras

Islas Revillagigedo
(Mexico)

REFERENCES

Havana

gh

ou

Base map data sources include GEBCO 2008 shaded relief, Volcanoes of the World dataset (Siebert and Simkin,
2002), plate boundaries (Bird, 2003), and geographic information from Digital Chart of the World (1992) and ESRI
(2002). Subduction slab contours are colored and labeled as to depth (Hayes and Wald, 2010).

a
rid
F l oe y e s
K

Sigsbee Deep

ta

Durango

Tr

rp

uc

de

ca

ag

25
Key West

Volcn de Colima

45.9

The pre-instrumental seismicity map (upper left) shows approximate locations of events based on macro-seismic
reports and field investigations (NOAA National Geophysical Data Center database of significant earthquakes,
2010). These are earthquakes for which deaths were reported.

Culiacan

PA C I F I C O C E A N

Cla rion

Gulf of Mexico

25

en

.Z.
cF

1950

Los
Angeles
San
Diego

Clark Basin

C O S TA R I C A

110

105

7.9
8.0

Crust
Upper mantle
Transition zone

8.1
8.2

-100

Lower mantle

100 200 300 400 500 600

TRENCH AXIS

100

200

300

400

B'

46

1.63.2

TRENCH AXIS

A -200

-100

100

200

300

400

A'

0.81.6
3.26.4

6.49.8

MEXICO

Monterrey

47

TRENCH AXIS

-100

-200
-300

-100

-400

PROFILE A

-500
-600
-700
-800

-200

PROFILE X
-300

Relative plate motion

NORTH AMERICA PLATE

Depth (km)

Air

B -100

7.8

Earth structure

800
Kilometers

ni

7.7

Active volcanoes

700

or

7.6

600

if

Nucleation points
of M>8.3 events

500

0.40.8

Chihuahua

al

77.4

400

0.20.4

300700 km

300

30

of

6.56.9

200

New Orleans

Houston

70299 km

San
Antonio

Distance (km)

069 km

66.4

7.5

DEPTH PROFILE EXPLANATION

Profiles of earthquake and volcano
locations are constructed from the mapped
data. Locations of the profile intersection
with the surface are drawn in the map and
labeled to coincide with the profile label.
Box defines extent of earthquakes
included in the profile. Length of the
profile graphic is the same as in the map.
Distance in kilometers from the trench
axis is indicated in the X direction, depth
in kilometers is indicated in the Y
direction. There is no vertical
exaggeration. See Explanation at side for
color key. Not all earth layers, earthquake
depths or magnitude, are visible on every
profile.

00.2 m/s
Austin

Scale 1:8 000 000

100

Peak ground acceleration

UNITED STATES

85

ul

45.9

El Paso

Magnitude classes Depth of focus

90

95

FIGURE EXPLANATION

Dallas

30

100

90

Phoenix

44

San Jose
120
Universal Transverse Mercator Projection
Digital map database and cartography by Susan Rhea and Art Tarr
Manuscript approved for publication Nov. 16, 2011

100

11.019.9 mm/yr

Gulf of Mexico

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Denver, CO 80225
To learn about the USGS and its information products visit
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This report is available at:
http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2010/1083/f
For more information concerning this publication, contact:
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Box 25046, Mail Stop 966
Denver, CO 80225
(303) 273-8579
Or visit Geologic Hazards Science Center Web site at:
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20.039.9
-100
40.059.9

PA C I F I C O C E A N
Any use of trade, product or firm names is for
descriptive purposes only and does not imply
endorsement by the U.S. Government.
Although this information product, for the most part,
is in the public domain, it also contains copyrighted
materials as noted in the text. Permission to
reproduce copyrighted items for other than personal
use must be secured from the copyright owner.

Suggested citation:
Benz, H.M., Dart, R.L., Villaseor, Antonio, Hayes, G.P., Tarr,
A.C., Furlong, K.P., and Rhea, Susan, 2011, Seismicity of the
Earth 19002010 Mexico and vicinity: U.S. Geological
Survey Open-File Report 20101083-F, scale 1:8,000,000.

17

58

-200

Merida

Guadalajara
20

Mexico
City

73

PROFILE B

44

Toluca

20

80.0100.0

Puebla

-300

Plate boundaries

PACIFIC PLATE
-400

60.079.9

BELIZE

RIVERA
MICROPLATE

Transform

59

Divergent

GUATEMALA
HONDURAS

COCOS PLATE
110

Subduction

100

Guatemala
City

Tegucigalpa

Convergent
Inferred

90