Mexican scientists began expedition in the Guerrero gap to evaluate seismic activity

A group of Mexican scientists aboard the oceanographic vessel El Puma i began an expedition to the area known as the Guerrero Breach with the mission of rescuing seven seismometers from the seabed, which have measured activity in that seismic strip since 2019 and which had to be collected in 2020, however, the crisis health by Covid-19 prevented this work from being carried out.

The team is composed of eight scientists from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and one from the University of Kyoto, in Japan. Researchers Víctor Manuel Cruz Atienza and Yoshihiro Ito lead these efforts to rescue instruments for recording and measuring the movements generated by tectonic plates.

The ship departed from Mazatlán, in Sinaloa and plans to travel 1,438 nautical miles for eleven days in the hope that the seismometers will be functional and can extract the data that is so valuable for this six-year research project.

The seismic activity of the Guerrero Breach, which covers between 160 and 200 kilometers in length, arouses particular interest in the scientific community because there has not been a major earthquake in the last 120 years, so it is necessary to analyze the data to understand whether energy has been released slowly to the sides or has concentrated at some point.

On this point, Sara Franco, a doctor in seismology and member of this expedition, explains that since 1997 the coast of Guerro has been closely observed and the deformation of the earth's crust associated with tremors is analyzed, in which the existence of so-called slow earthquakes is recorded.

“This type of earthquake causes a transmission of accumulated energy towards the limits of the gap,” and this could explain that major earthquakes occur in the periphery and not in the very center of this area, explained the Mexican scientist.

This scientific team that carries out the expedition believes that since December 2021 the Guerrero Breach is under the influence of the action of a slow earthquake. Only in March 2022 there were two earthquakes of moderate strength, 4.8 and 4 degrees of intensity, with an epicenter in the Guerrero Breach, which accounts for its permanent activity.

For researchers, it is an objective to understand the consequences of this phenomenon in order to determine whether it implies a release of energy towards extremes, or if there is a latent risk of an earthquake of a strong magnitude, although it is emphasized that it is impossible to anticipate and speculate on intensity.

The success of this mission is crucial for civil protection policies and would help to clear up, with clear data, rumors and false news about a possible major earthquake over the coast of Guerrero and its effects in the center of the country.

Faced with the need to ponder scientific studies, at a meeting held on January 21, the Steering Committee of Oceanographic Platforms of the UNAM (COPO) agreed with this team of specialists to carry out the trip.

UNAM geophysicist Víctor Manuel Cruz Atienza along with his colleague from Kyoto University Yohihiro Ito are responsible for the Mexican-Japanese team that has been studying the gap for six years. In addition to recovering the instruments placed on the seabed three years ago, the mission also plans to install new seismometers.

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