ATC-141

Project Title: September 19, 2017 Puebla-Morelos, Mexico Earthquake: Seismological and Structural Observations by the ATC Reconnaissance Team

Funding Source: ATC Endowment Fund

Purpose: Following the magnitude-7.1 Puebla-Morelos, Mexico earthquake on September 19th of 2017, the Applied Technology Council (ATC) deployed to the field an interdisciplinary team of seismologists, structural and geotechnical engineers, tasked with performing reconnaissance and collecting building design and strong ground motion information.  The team arrived in Mexico City on October 10th, 2017 and worked with local agencies and academic institutions for the duration of one week.  The ATC-141 report documents the findings of the field team, including observation of earthquake effects for 70 buildings, microtremors recorded using monitoring instruments at 7 buildings, and a compilation of processed ground motion recordings from UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico) and CIRES (Center of Instrumentation and Seismic Records). This report also serves as a reference to two papers approved for publication in Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) Spectra Journal.

Acknowledgements: The field team was primarily supported by the ATC Endowment fund, which was established in 1989 with a purpose to support projects of critical interest to structural engineering design practice, research, and education.  Additional support was provided for instrumentation by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Grant #1810899. The contents of this report are the result of collaboration by universities (State University of New York at Buffalo, National Technical University of Athens, University of Greenwich, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, and Aristotle University of Thessaloniki), private engineering firms in the United States (Gilsanz Murray Steficek, WSP, Degenkolb Engineers, Forell/Elsesser Engineers, IDS Group, and Rutherford + Chekene), private engineering and architecture firms in Mexico (TEN Arquitectos, Grupo Colinas de Buen , PEI Diseño Estructural S.A. de C.V., Grupo Rioboo, Kali Design), and agencies and organizations in both Mexico and United States (Centro de Instrumentación de Registro Sísmico, Sociedad Mexicana de Ingenería Estructural, A.C., and Earthquake Engineering Research Institute).

Access: The ATC-141 report is provided here in its entirety free of charge, courtesy of the ATC Endowment Fund.