Abstract
The 1985 Mexican earthquakes demonstrated that knowledge concerning their history was still scarce and precarious.In fact those earthquakes acted as triggers, because it was then when a new field of research began to develop: disaster historical research. An initial task was to retrieve the history of earthquakes in Mexico in order throughout to produce an exhaustive inventory. The main result was a paradigmatic catalogue, published some years ago as the book Los sismos en la historia de Mexico (Earthquakes in Mexican History). It contains information about every event along 450 years of Mexican seismological history. This paper will focus on the background of this seismological compilation and its characteristics, addressing mainly methodological items concerning sources, qualitative and/or quantitative data, the importance of joint and multidisciplinary efforts, and the research they have inspired on historical earthquakes investigation in Mexico.
Highlights
The Mexican Republic is located in a highly seismic region of the planet, mainly because the Cocos and the Rivera plates subduct below the North American plate, and the Pacific plate separates from the North American plate along the Baja California Gulf spreading center
Up to 1985 there existed two types of seismological catalogues or compilations: a) parametrical ones produced with an exclusive interest for seismologists, corresponding mainly to the instrumental period of Mexican seismology and, as such, covering basically the 20th century; b) earthquake compilations produced mainly during the 19th century, as part of the greatest amount of enlightenment production linked to the growing interest in understanding and explaining Nature
In 1996 the most recent effort appeared with the edition of «Los sismos en la historia de México» («Earthquakes in Mexican History»), which covers more than 450 years of Mexican seismological history, from 1455 up to 1913 (García-Acosta and Suárez-Reynoso, 1996)
Summary
The Mexican Republic is located in a highly seismic region of the planet, mainly because the Cocos and the Rivera plates subduct below the North American plate, and the Pacific plate separates from the North American plate along the Baja California Gulf spreading center. Numerous earthquakes have occurred throughout Mexican history A short time later, in 1987, the joint effort yielded its first product with the edition of the book «Y volvió a temblar», which means «And it trembled again» (Rojas-Rabiela, et al, 1987). This title reminds us of the first sentence of many colonial documents that reported earthquake occurrence. In 1996 the most recent effort appeared with the edition of «Los sismos en la historia de México» («Earthquakes in Mexican History»), which covers more than 450 years of Mexican seismological history, from 1455 up to 1913 (García-Acosta and Suárez-Reynoso, 1996)
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