Seismic microzonation for the northeast Texcoco lake area, Mexico

The Texcoco Lake area is currently undergoing a rapid urbanization. This has required designing and building strategic infrastructure. However, this zone has been poorly explored, and thus, a building code design response spectrum is not available. This paper presents the exploration and laboratory works, as well as the analytical studies conducted for obtaining a design response spectrum for the northeast Texcoco Lake area. From geotechnical information gathered previously for other projects in the studied zone, and applying the ordinary kriging technique, the necessary dynamic soil parameters for site response analysis were determined. A total of 2501 virtual soil profiles were generated. The seismic environment was characterized throughout a uniform hazard spectrum obtained in a nearby rock outcrop. Probabilistic site response analyses were performed using the uniform hazard spectrum computed in rock as input motion for all 2501 virtual profiles. Finally, a design response spectrum for the studied area was proposed.

► Framework to develop a design response spectrum within the Texcoco lake region. ► Characterization of dynamic parameters through geo-statistics. ► Variation of measured shear wave velocity follows a lognormal distribution. ► Measured plasticity index follows a normal probability distribution. ► Ground motion variability was overall well captured by a single envelope.