Landslide inventory map of Guadalupe Range, north of the Mexico Basin

Resumen

The Guadalupe Range
(GR) is one of the several volcanic chains in the Mexico Basin and
is located in its north-central portion. Four municipalities of the
State of Mexico -Tlalnepantla, Tultitlan, Ecatepec, Coacalco- and
one precinct in Mexico City -Delegation Gustavo A. Madero- surround
the Guadalupe range. During the last decades the settlements in
these areas have experienced substantial population growth. In the
1960´s, the communities had 744,905 people, and by 2000, the
population was of 4 152,350 peoples. Nowadays, the population of
these municipalities is growing towards the GR. However, the natural
conditions of GR such as its geology, geomorphology and climate;
along with human factors such as deforestation, changes of original
slope, heavy-traffic transit and mining, have create the conditions
for the occurrence of landslides that affect the population of these
areas. We identified and characterized 206 landslide sites in the
Guadalupe Ranges. The mechanism most frequently found was toppling
and rock fall, followed by, wedge, translational and rotational
failure, debris flow, creep or a combination of these mechanisms.
Slope failures were identified through erosive landforms, horseshoe
head and flanks and tectonic features such as fault scarpments and
fractures. From the identified landslides, and the natural and human
conditions that motivate their occurrence, it is established that a
landslides seriously threaten the communities of Tlalnepantla,
Ecatepec, Coacalco, Tultitlan and Gustavo A. Madero. According with
adverse geological and geomorphic condition on Guadalupe range it is
necessary to propose a landslides inventory map, goal of this
paper.