Effects of regional subsidence and earthquakes on architectural monuments in Mexico City

Resumen

Mexico City is mostly
located over extremely soft lacustrine clays that have been
undergoing a consolidation process due to the exploitation of the
aquifers underlying these soils. Therefore, the city has been
sinking and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future;
resulting differential settlements have constantly damaged most of
the city’s architectural heritage. México City is located within a
high seismicity zone. Earthquakes have also damaged the city’s
architectural treasures and will continue to be threatened by them
in the future. In this paper it is described the way in which these
two hazards have affected monuments in the past, and at the ways in
which they may as well be combined in the future to pose further
threats. In order to do that, it is considered the change of the
properties of the subsoil as a result of the futures changes of pore
pressures within the clays, and of the resulting effective stress
increments in the seismic response of the soft lacustrine clay
deposits.