Long codas of coupled wave systems in seismic basins

Abstract

Quite some time ago it was pointed out that the damage patterns and Fourier spectra of the 1985 earthquake in Mexico City are only compatible with a resonant effect of horizontal waves with the approximate speed of sound waves in water [see Flores et al., Nature 326, 783 (1987)]. In a more recent paper it was pointed out that this indeed will occur with a very specific frequency selection for a coupled system of Raleigh waves at the interface of the bottom of the ancient lakebed with the more solid deposits, and an evanescent sound wave in the mud above [see J. Flores et al., Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am. 89, 14–21 (1999)]. In the present talk we shall go over these arguments again and show that strong reflection at the edges of the lake must occur to account for the strong magnification entailing necessarily a long coda, and that the mecanism can be understood in the same terms.