Steady Buildings: Earthquake-Resistant

Design in Mexico
By Alexandra Brandt On September 17, 2015 Add Comment
The earthquake that shook Mexico City on
September 19, 1985, left behind it a devastating
wave of destruction. A significant feature of this
days tremblor was that the frequency of the waves
it produced was perfectly in sync with the natural
frequency of mid-size buildings between 7 and 18
stories, of which around 400 were notably more
affected than smaller or taller buildings. A further
factor which contributed to the extensive scale of
the disaster is the soil which supports the citys
massive population. Mexicos capital is built on
deep soft ground, a reminder of its glorious past as
a canal-riddled Aztec settlement. However, most
importantly, the countrys location, in close
proximity to the trench resulting from the North
American plate and the Cocos and Pacific plates
moving against each other. Type of soil and
location hence are determining factors.

While the 1985 earthquake remains the most brutal

one to date, Mexico City is hit by minor and less
minor tremblors on a regular basis.
Understandably, many one inhabitant of the city
has since asked himself what would happen if such
a disaster would strike again. The telluric
phenomenon also presents itself at varying levels
of intensity in coastal states such as Jalisco,
Michoacn, Guerrero, Guerrero and Baja Californa
Sur, where, according to Mexicos National Center
for Disaster Prevention (CENAPRED), the
damages are often more significant than in the
capital. Nevertheless, with experts predicting a
significant earthquake striking Mexico City in the
foreseeable future, attention has to be directed
towards increasing safety for the citys millions of
habitants. As the saying goes, It is not
earthquakes who kill people, buildings do.
While the occurrence of seismic activity has not
decreased, at least construction regulations have
become more stringent. Additionally, according to
Cinna Lomnitz, investigator at the Institute of
Geophysics of the Autonomous National University
of Mexico, contemporary engineering methods are
much more advanced, allowing the construction of
earthquake-resistant buildings. Chile is a country
that has repetitively exemplified this, most recently
in April 2014, when an earthquake of magnitude 7.2
on the scale of Richter struck its Northern states. A
particularly notable fact in the light of the strength of
the earthquake was that close to no buildings
collapsed. One may ask ones selves: How could
this have been prevented in a country with one of
the highest incidence of temblors?

A large part of the answer lies within the choice of

construction materials and techniques. The key to
building earthquake-resistant buildings is found in
constructing a structure of reinforced concrete and
steel, which, when exposed to a tremblor, displays
flexibility yet is resilient enough for the building to
move without collapsing. However of course the
enforcement of the accompanying laws and
regulations are indispensable for ensuring that
earthquake-resistant building standards are
complied with. Construction companies and real
estate developers now have to conform to stricter
construction standards embodied in the
Regulations for Construction of the Federal District,
which were updated on four occasions between
1987 and today.
To resist shocks such as those caused by
earthquakes, the building structure needs to be
built in a way that it can resist sideway load. Aside
from using reinforced concrete and steel, seismic-
resistant building design usually includes the use of
shock absorbers, shear walls which stiffen the
building structure and thereby resist rocking forces
and base isolation, which involves the building
not being built directly on the ground, but instead,
on flexible pads or bearings. The latter has as a
consequence that the building will not or barely not
move together with the earthquakes motion,
leading to significantly less sustained damage.

Mexico, and its earthquake-prone capital, indeed is

not without its share of highly resistant buildings.
Several of the skyscrapers longing the famous
Reforma Avenue are made out of reinforced
concrete and steel, and are well-equipped with
shock absorbers.
The Torre Mayor, designed by Canadian architect
Paul Reichmann and pictured above, for example
boasts an incredible 98 giant shock absorbers
which in theory are able to compensate for the
movement of a tremblor with a strength up to 9 on
the scale of Richter. These attributes make this
emblematic skyscraper one of the worlds safest
buildings, and the safest one in Latin America. In
terms of safety, the skyscraper even surpasses the
building standards of California, USA, which are the
most stringent of the world. Other seismic-resistant
buildings involve the Torre Latinoamerica, the
World Trade Center and the Pemex tower, all of
which can resist tremblors that exceed 8.0
magnitude on the scale of Richter.