Preliminary Seismic Damage Assessment of Mexican Churches after September 2017 Earthquakes

ABSTRACT

The article presents a preliminary assessment of seismic damage shown by 60 Mexican churches after the two earthquakes arisen in September 2017. The first earthquake occurred on September 7th and hit mainly the States of Chiapas, Oaxaca, and Tabasco, with a magnitude Mw 8.2. The second, on 19th September struck the central Mexico area, mainly the Puebla and Morelos State, and had a magnitude Mw 7.1. The data analyzed were collected through a systematic survey campaign that is still in progress, and by applying a specific Mexican form obtained from the Italian one including some new observed response mechanisms, typical of churches typology examined. The paper concludes with a statistical analysis of the seismic damage conducted with the tool of Damage Probability Matrixes (DPMs) and fragility curves.

KEYWORDS:

• Ancient churches
• damage probability matrix
• fragility curves
• macro-elements
• seismic damage assessment
• seismic vulnerability

Acknowledgments

The research activity carried out by Ph.D. Student Daniela Diaz Fuentes and Master Student Pilar Baquedano Julià has been granted by the ELARCH scholarship and mobility, a project funded under the Erasmus Mundus Action 2 Partnership (EMA2) by the European Commission, and coordinated by the University of Basilicata (www.elarch.org). ELARCH project: Reference number 552129-EM-1-2014-1-IT-ERA MUNDUS-EMA21 funded with the support of the European Commission. This document reflects the view only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency [Reference number 552129-EM-1-2014-1-IT-ERA MUNDUS-].