STUDY OF SEISMIC HAZARDS IN THE CENTER OF THE STATE OF VERACRUZ, MÉXICO.

Abstract:

Preliminary results obtained from the project "Microzonation of geological and hydrometeorological hazards for conurbations of Orizaba, Veracruz, and major sites located in the lower sub-basins: The Antigua and Jamapa" are presented. These project was supported by the Joint Funds CONACyT-Veracruz state government.

It was developed a probabilistic seismic hazard assessment (henceforth PSHA) in the central area of Veracruz State, mainly in a region bounded by the watersheds of the rivers Jamapa and Antigua, whit the aim to evaluate the geological and hydrometeorological hazards in this region. The project pays most attention to extreme weather phenomena, floods and earthquakes, in order to calculate the risk induced by previous for landslides and rock falls.

In addition, as part of the study, the PSHA was developed considered the site effect in the urban zones of the cities Xalapa and Orizaba; the site effects were incorporated by a standard format proposed in studies of microzonation and its application in computer systems, which allows to optimize and condense microzonation studies in a city.

The results obtained from the PSHA are presented through to seismic hazard maps (hazard footprints), exceedance rate curves and uniform hazard spectrum for different spectral ordinates, between 0.01 and 5.0 seconds, associated to selected return periods: 72, 225, 475 and 2475 years.