The Mexico City earthquake
The city stands on a drained lake, and the ground rings with it
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Mexico City is built on the bed of a drained lake, and its ground is soft clay rather than solid rock. The earthquake's epicentre was four hundred kilometres away, and that the damage in the capital was nonetheless so severe is due to a resonance effect in the lake clay, now a standard case in earthquake engineering. Politically it was a turning point: the government's response was so weak that neighbourhoods organised the rescue themselves, and the networks that formed are identified as one root of the democratisation that ended PRI rule in 2000.
For children
A powerful earthquake struck Mexico City in 1985, killing at least ten thousand people. The damage was worst in the centre, built on the bed of the old lake — the soft ground amplified the shaking severely.
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