New earthquake in CDMX: Why have there been micro-seisms?

In an interview for Radio Formula, Carlos Valdés, a geophysics researcher at UNAM, pointed out that the three microseisms occurred in less than 20 minutes.

Earthquake in CDMX today

To the Coyoacán earthquakes, one was added this February 8. This was 1.2 degrees and was located southeast of the Álvaro Obregón mayor’s office.

What is a microseism?

Microseisms are movements that, according to the SSN, are produced in the subsoils by small ruptures close to the surface. Although they are not perceptible as an earthquake or earthquake.

These are not unusual in the Valley of Mexico basin region.

The SSN details that the most superficial layer of the Earth, called the lithosphere, is a rigid layer made up of material that can fracture when a force is exerted on it and forms a puzzle called Tectonic Plates. These plates travel like “blocks of cork in water” on the Asthenosphere, which is a visco-elastic layer where material flows when a force is exerted on it.

These random displacements of the plates are due to convective movements in the Earth’s intermediate layer or mantle, that is, hot material from the Earth’s interior rises to the surface, releasing internal heat, while cold material falls to the interior.

This phenomenon causes the movement of the plates and it is just at the limits between plates, where they make contact with each other, friction forces are generated that keep two adjacent plates stuck, producing great stresses on the materials.

When these efforts exceed the resistance of the rock, or when the friction force is overcome, violent rupture occurs and the sudden release of the accumulated energy, thus generating a tremor that radiates said energy in the form of waves that propagate in all directions. directions through the solid medium of the Earth.