Comment on ‘evidence of the dominance of higher-mode surface waves in the lake-bed zone of the valley of Mexico by Shapiroet al.(2001)’

Abstract

SUMMARY The purpose of this note is to contribute to the understanding of seismic ground motion in Mexico City. To this end, we (1) compute theoretical transfer functions for various models for the deep structure and the shallow clay layers, (2) study the seismic responses of various sites within the city using spectral ratios (of horizontal motion relative to the motion of nearby rock sites and relative to the vertical motion at the same site) and (3) discuss some characteristics of surface waves for models of the deep structure and the shallow clay layers in the Valley of Mexico.