An earthquake focal mechanism catalog for source and tectonic studies in Mexico from February 1928 to July 2022

Rodríguez-Pérez, Quetzalcoatl; Zúñiga, F. Ramón

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2022-326

Preprints

https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2022-326

Preprints

02 Jan 2023

| 02 Jan 2023

Status: this preprint is currently under review for the journal ESSD.

An earthquake focal mechanism catalog for source and tectonic studies in Mexico from February 1928 to July 2022

Quetzalcoatl Rodríguez-Pérez and F. Ramón Zúñiga

Abstract. We present a focal mechanism catalog for earthquakes that occurred in Mexico and surrounding areas reported from February 1928 to July 2022. The magnitude of the events varies from -0.9 to 8.2. The hypocentral depth is in the range of 0 < Z < 270 km. Focal mechanisms in this catalog are associated with tectonic, geothermal, and volcanic environments. Reported fault plane solutions were derived using different types of data at local, regional, and teleseismic distances and different methods such as first motions, composite solutions, waveform analysis, and moment tensor inversion. So far, focal mechanism data for earthquakes in Mexico, were dispersed over many publications without any link among them. For this reason, we collected and revised focal mechanism solutions previously reported by different agencies and studies from published sources. Our catalog consists of 5701 fault plane solutions, and we report all the available focal mechanisms obtained by different authors and seismological agencies for each seismic event. Additionally, we classified the fault type into seven types: normal (N), normal – strike-slip (N-SS), strike-slip – normal (SS-N), strike-slip (SS), strike-slip – reverse (SS-R), reverse – strike-slip (R-SS), and reverse (R) providing some preliminary statistics results. We used the ternary diagrams of Kaverina-type classification to verify the rupture type of focal mechanism data. We also provide a classification of the quality of the focal mechanism data into three categories: A, B, and C. A represents good/reliable data, B represents regular, and C represents poor/questionable data according to a well-defined criterion. Our intention is to provide a comprehensive compilation of focal mechanism data which can help in future source and tectonic studies in Mexico.

The earthquake focal mechanism catalog (https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/Earthquake_focal_mechanism_catalog_for_Mexico/21663668; Rodríguez-Pérez and Zúñiga, 2022) is given as the Supplement of this paper.

Received: 23 Sep 2022 – Discussion started: 02 Jan 2023

Quetzalcoatl Rodríguez-Pérez and F. Ramón Zúñiga

Status: open (extended)

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RC1: 'Comment on essd-2022-326', Anonymous Referee #1, 20 Feb 2023 reply

Review of the manuscript:
An earthquake focal mechanism catalog for source and tectonic studies in Mexico from February 1928 to July 2022.
by
Quetzalcoatl Rodríguez-Pérez, F. Ramón Zúñiga
The authors collected and revised focal mechanisms of earthquakes which occurred inside the Mexican territory, in the period February 1928 – July 2022. For earthquakes having multiple solutions, they preferred to present all the solutions in their catalog. According to the quality of the solutions, the focal mechanisms were divided in different categories.
This catalog is a powerful tool in understanding the seismotectonic properties of Mexico, and inside the framework of the journal’s aims. My recommendation is the publication of the work after minor revision.
I like the description of the methods and the data given in the introduction of the manuscript.
My comments and recommendations are the following:
Page 5 line 18
More details are needed for the magnitude distribution. -0.9 is an extreme value and if this is considered as the end member of the magnitude range does not help the reader to understand the magnitude distribution. However, it would be interesting to know the properties of the seismic network recorded so small shocks and the method used for the determination of the focal mechanism.
In Figure 1, the circles denoting the magnitudes are hidden by the vertical lines showing the frequency of the earthquakes. My recommendation is to use a different color for the circles and to plot them in front of the blue lines.
Page 7 lines 13-17
What is the magnitude range of the earthquakes classified in relation to the technique used?
Page 9, 2^nd paragraph
The authors present the criteria that used to classify the focal mechanisms in three categories. Instead of the text, a table would be very helpful for the reader to digest the classification. What does it mean adequate velocity model?
Page 9, lines 5,6
In the text is written: “one or more of the following situations”. Is that correct or all the criteria should be fulfilled?
Page 9 line 24: “magnitude” instead of “manitude”
Page 10, line 6: “to determine” instead of “to determined”
Magnitude distribution in figures 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, show (more or less) two distinct groups of earthquakes. Is this used to the detectability of the existent networks, or the results of temporary networks deployed for study of the aftershock sequences?

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Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2022-326-RC1

Quetzalcoatl Rodríguez-Pérez and F. Ramón Zúñiga

Data sets

Earthquake focal mechanism catalog for Mexico Rodríguez-Pérez Quetzalcoatl and Zúñiga F. Ramón https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.21663668.v1

Quetzalcoatl Rodríguez-Pérez and F. Ramón Zúñiga

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Short summary

We present a focal mechanism catalog for earthquakes that occurred in Mexico. Reported fault plane solutions were derived using different types of data at local, regional, and teleseismic distances and different methods such as first motions, composite solutions, waveform analysis, and moment tensor inversion. Our catalog consists of 5701 fault plane solutions, and we report all the available focal mechanisms obtained by different authors and seismological agencies for each seismic event.


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