B a y o f

C a m p e c h e
Cayos Miskitos
Islas Maras
CUBA
Islas de la Bahia
Mi s s i s s i p
p
i F
a
n
Tehauntepec F.Z.
C l i p p e r t o n R i d g e
Ulloa
Knoll
Tres Marias
Basin
M
a
g
d
a
l e
n
a
E
s c a
r p
m
e n t
E
A
S
T

P
A
C
I
F
I
C

R
I
S
E C l a r k B a s i n
S i g s b e e E s c a r p m
e n t
Me x i c o B a s i n
Ma z a t l a n
B a s i n
T
e
h
a
u
n
t e
p
e
c R
i d
g
e
L i g h t n i n g B a n k
C a mp e c h e B a n k
S i g s b e e D e e p
Y
u
c
a
t a
n
B
a s i n
Clarion F.Z.
M
o
c
t e
z
u
m
a
T
r o
u
g
h
Or ozco F. Z.
C
e
d
r
o
s

T
r
e
n
c
h
S
a
n
Jo
se
C
a
n
yo
n
P
e
s
c
a
d
e
r o
T
r o
u
g
h
Banderas canyon
Gu l f o f Me x i c o
Gu l f o f
Ho n d u r a s
Golfo de Fonseca
Isla de Utila
Grand Cayman I.
Caym
Isla de la Roatn
Turneffe Is.
Isla Cozumel
Key West
I s l a s R e v i l l a g i g e d o
( Me x i c o )
Isla Socorro
Isla Benedicto
Isla Clarin
Isla Roca Partida
Isla Mara Madre
Isla Mara Cleofas
Isla Mara Magdalena
Isla del la
Juventud
Fl ori da
Keyes
Cayo Norte
Cayo Lobos
Isla de Guanaja
I. Providencia
(Colombia)
I. San Andreas
(Colombia)
I. Del Mais Grande
A l b a t r o s s
P l a t e a u
Lago de
Nicaragua
PA C I F I C OC E A N
B'
60
60
100
100
M E X I C O
U N I T E D S T A T E S
B E L I Z E
H O N D U R A S
N I C A R A G U A
C O S TA R I C A
El Chichn
Volcn de Colima
Paricutin
Popocatpetl
Ixtaccihuatl
Mobile
Los
Angeles
Atlanta
Phoenix
Dallas
San
Diego
Mexicali
El Paso
Jacksonville Austin
New Orleans Houston San
Antonio
Hermosillo
Chihuahua
Tampa
Monterrey
Saltillo
Culiacan
Durango
Havana
Tampico San Luis
Potosi
Aguascalientes
Merida
Guadalajara Queretaro
Morelia
Mexico
City
Toluca
Puebla
Cuernavaca
Villahermosa
Acapulco
Tuxtla Gutierrez
San Pedro
Sula
GU AT E MA L A
Tegucigalpa
Managua
San Jose
Veracruz
EL SALVADOR
Yucat an
Peni nsul a
San Cl ement e I s.
Sant a Cat al i na I s.
Sant a Cruz I s.
Sant a Rosa I s.
G
u
l
f



o
f



C
a
l
i
f
o
r
n
i
a
I sl a Guadel upe
( Mexi co)
B
B'
A
A'
1908
1950
1902
1902
1907
1909
1911
1911
1917
1928
1928
1928
1931
1932
1932
1941
1942
1950
1957
1973
1976
1978
1979
1985
1985
1992
1995
1999
2001
2003
85
85
90
90
95
95
100
100
105
105
110
110 115
120
120
30 30
25 25
20 20
15 15
C a y ma n R i d g e
C AY MA N T R E N C H
M
I D
D
L
E
A
M
E R
I C
A
T
R
E
N
C
H
B
a
j a
C
a
l i f o
r n
i a
I. de la Guardia
I. Tiburon
I. Cedros
Austin
PA C I F I C OC E A N
G
u l f o f C
a l i f o r n i a
Gu l f o f Me x i c o
COCOS PLATE
PACIFIC PLATE
NORTH AMERICA PLATE
RIVERA
MICROPLATE
U N I T E D S T A T E S
M E X I C O
GUATEMALA
HONDURAS
Los
Angeles Phoenix
Dallas San
Diego
El Paso
Houston San
Antonio
New Orleans
Chihuahua
Monterrey
Merida
Guadalajara
Mexico
City
Toluca Puebla
Guatemala
City Tegucigalpa
46
47
44
59
44
58
73
17
90
90
100
100
110
110
30 30
20 20
BELIZE
Sei smi c Hazard and Rel ati ve Pl ate Moti on
TRENCH AXIS
PROFILE B
-100 0 100 200 300 400
-400
-300
-200
-100
0
B B'
TRENCH AXIS
PROFILE A
-200 -100 0 100 200 300 400
-300
-200
-100
0
A A'
GUATEMALA
1887
1874
1873
1873
1870
1864
1854
1812
1773
1773
1568
U N I T E D S T A T E S
M E X I C O
HONDURAS
NICARAGUA
BELIZE
90
90
100
100
110
110
30 30
20 20
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
Kilometers
Scale 1:8 000 000
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY
Seismicity of the Earth 19002010
Mexico and Vicinity
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
1U.S. Geological Survey
2
Institute of Earth Sciences, CSIC, Barcelona, Spain
3
Department of Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA16802 USA
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.
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.
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 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.
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) .
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).
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).
The pre-instrumental seismicity map (upper left) shows approximate locations of events based on macro-seismic
reports and field investigations (NOAANational Geophysical Data Center database of significant earthquakes,
2010). These are earthquakes for which deaths were reported.
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).
Bird, Peter, 2003, An updated digital model of plate boundaries: Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems, v. 4, no. 3, 52 p.
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.
Digital Chart of the World, 1992: http://earth-info.nga.mil/publications/specs/printed/89009/89009_DCW.pdf, last
accessed Mar. 9, 1996.
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.
ESRI, 2002, ESRI data and maps: Redlands, Calif., ESRI. Available at http://www.esri.com/data/data-maps/index.html.
GEBCO, 2008, The GEBCO_08_Grid, ver. 20091120, last accessed January 8, 2010 at http://www.gebco.net/.
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/.
NOAANational Geophysical Data Center, 2010, last accessed March 31, 2010 at http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/hazards.
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/.
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.
TECTONIC SUMMARY
DATASOURCES AND MAP DISPLAY
Universal Transverse Mercator Projection
Digital map database and cartography by Susan Rhea and Art Tarr
Manuscript approved for publication Nov. 16, 2011
2011
OPEN-FILE REPORT 20101083-F
Revised September, 2011
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
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For more information concerning this publication, contact:
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Or visit Geologic Hazards Science Center Web site at:
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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.
REFERENCES
PRE-I NSTRUMENTAL SEI SMI CI TY 15001899
Events causing deaths
.
PROFI LE X
TRENCH AXIS
-100 0 100 200 300 400 500 600
-800
-700
-600
-500
-400
-300
-200
-100
0
DEPTH PROFILE EXPLANATION Distance (km)
D
e
p
th
(km
)
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.
MAP EXPLANATION
Magnitude classes
45.9
66.4
6.56.9
77.4
7.5
7.6
7.7
7.8
7.9
8.0
8.1
8.2
Depth of focus
069 km
70299 km
300700 km
Active volcanoes
Mean slab depth
60 km
100
200
300
400
500
600
Plate boundaries
Divergent
Transform
Inferred
Subduction
Convergent
Magnitude classes
45.9
66.4
6.56.9
77.4
7.5
7.6
7.7
7.8
7.9
8.0
8.1
8.2
Depth of focus
069 km
70299 km
300700 km
Earth structure
Air
Crust
Upper mantle
Transition zone
Lower mantle
Active volcanoes
Nucleation points
of M>8.3 events
FIGURE EXPLANATION
Peak ground acceleration
00.2 m/s
0.20.4
0.40.8
0.81.6
1.63.2
3.26.4
6.49.8
Relative plate motion
11.019.9 mm/yr
20.039.9
40.059.9
60.079.9
80.0100.0
Plate boundaries
Divergent
Transform
Inferred
Subduction
Convergent
SAN ANDREAS
FA
U
LT