Abstract
Abstract. In spite of subsidence being a well-studied geological phenomenon in Mexico City, its effects and risks for urban infrastructure and inhabitants have been neglected. Damage in the short, medium and long term implies maintenance and important mitigation costs. There are not systematic studies that address methodologies for the estimation of physical vulnerability of the geological media to fracture. In this work, factors conditioning the deformation and susceptibility to fracturing are analyzed using a deterministic approach. The identified physical variables were mapped, measured and integrated into a database that allowed for an adequate correlation of the parameters that condition fractures spatial distribution. A methodology for estimating a vulnerability index to fracturing (VIF) useful for decision making is proposed in this work.
Highlights
According to historical reports, earth fissures and ground fractures affected the Mexico City subsoil before 1900 and have been studied since the mid-twentieth century
The first subsidence measurements and ground fractures developed after the beginning of groundwater extraction in the central part of the lacustrine plain were reported in 1925
Land subsidence was first numerically associated with groundwater extraction in the 1950s
Summary
Earth fissures and ground fractures affected the Mexico City subsoil before 1900 and have been studied since the mid-twentieth century. D. Carreon-Freyre et al.: Factors that condition physical vulnerability to ground fracturing in Mexico City. According to previous studies ground fracturing is generated by the interaction of different factors (Carreon-Freyre et al, 2019): (1) geological preexisting discontinuities caused by variations in the depositional environment 2006); (2) stress history due to climate changes determining the geometry of early fracturing; (3) variations in the compressibility and permeability of geological materials that control short-term and local-scale deformation (Carreon-Freyre et al, 2016); and (4) the exhaustive exploitation of aquifers causing a decline of the pore water pressure leading to subsidence and creating vertical and horizontal tensile stresses (Carrillo, 1947; Rivera and Ledoux, 1991; Holzer, 1984; Juárez-Badillo and Figueroa Vega, 1984). Coexistence of one or several of the mentioned factors determines the mechanism of fracturing at diverse scales
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