1985 Mexico earthquake

1985 Mexico City Earthquake
The 1985 Mexico City earthquake, a magnitude 8.1 earthquake that struck Mexico on 19 September 1985 at 7:19 local time, caused the deaths of about 10,000 people andserious damage in the nation's capital. This earthquake had significant long-term political consequences for the country The complete seismic event consisted of four quakes. A pre-event quake ofmagnitude 5.2 occurred on 28 May 1985. The main and most powerful shock occurred 19 September, followed by two aftershocks: one on 20 September 1985 of magnitude 7.5 and the third occurring seven months later on30 April 1986 of magnitude 7.0. The quakes were located off the Mexican Pacific coast, more than 350km away, but due to strength of the quake and the fact that Mexico City sits on an old lakebed,Mexico City suffered major damage. The event caused between three and four billion USD in damage as 412 buildings collapsed and another 3,124 were seriously damaged in the city. While the number is indispute, the most-often cited number of deaths is about an estimated 10,000 people The earthquake—apart from the aforementioned political consequences—had long-term social effects on the country. heepicenter of the earthquake was in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of the Mexican state of Michoacán, a distance of more than 350km from the city, in the Cocos Plate subduction zone, specifically in asection of the fault line known as the Michoacan seismic gap at coordinates 18.190 N 102.533 W The Cocos Plate pushes against and slides under the North American Plate, primarily along the coasts ofthe states of Michoacán and Guerrero in Mexico. Volatile trenches along the Cocos plate generally have had seismic events 30 to 70 years before 1985, This subduction zone outside the Gap was the sourceof 42 earthquakes of magnitude 7.0 or stronger in the 20th century prior to the 1985 event. However, this particular section of the subduction zone had not had an event for a much longer time.[2]...