NEHRP Clearinghouse
- Title
- The Veracruz Earthquake of 28 August 1973.
- File
- PB294928.pdf
- Author(s)
- Irvine, H. M.
- Source
- National Science Foundation, Washington, DC. Applied Science and Research Applications., October 1973, 42 p.
- Identifying Number(s)
- EERL-73-06
- Abstract
- An investigation of the Veracruz Earthquake of August 28, 1973 is reported. The earthquake, which caused considerable widespread damage in parts of Puebla and Veracruz in Southeast Mexico, registered 7.0 on the Richter scale. The National Earthquake Information Center reports the earthquake as occurring at 09:50:41.6 GMT with the instrumental epicenter at 18.275N96.584W and the hypocenter at a depth of approximately 100 km. The death toll has been tentatively placed at 500 with about three times as many injured. Severe damage to property was confined to a region of about 30 km radius around Serdan, the center of destructive shaking, and the cities of Orizaba, Cordoba, and Rio Blanco, all of which have been investigated separately. The author concludes that the region most heavily shaken by the earthquake is one of the less affluent parts of the country and, therefore, the quality of construction was not good. He suggests that enforcement of building codes in these areas should be required by the federal government since local jurisdictions have difficulty in raising standards of construction. It was also pointed out that the location of this earthquake, which has experienced little destructive shaking in the past, can yet suffer considerable damage. Forty-eight photographs of the affected areas are included.
- Keywords
- Damage assessment; Earthquake resistant structures; Dynamic structure analysis; Mexico; Dynamic response; Buildings; Earthquake engineering; Veracruz (Mexico); Building codes; Earthquakes