1985 Mexico City earthquake

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The 1985 Mexico City earthquake was one of the most devastating earthquakes in the history of the Americas.

The event

On Thursday, September 19, 1985, at 7:19am, Mexico City was struck by an earthquake of magnitude 8.1 on the Richter scale. The earthquake hit the whole city, but the most damaged zones were the ones located where in the past used to lay the lake of Texcoco, in the ancient Tenochtitlan. The soft sediments of these buildings (made from mud and sand) and the negligence of some businessmen and architects of not using the adequate structures were the reason of these buildings to collapse

After more than 2 minutes the earthquake stopped, and the center of the city was destroyed. Several schools, housing units, the Televisa Chapultepec broadcaster and even hospitals were destroyed. This resulted in a death toll estimated up to 9,000 and 30,000 people were injured, while leaving another 95,000 homeless. The rescue workers saved more than 4,000 lives, including newborns from the hospital. One hundred thousand housing units were destroyed, together with many government buildings. Up to USD $4 billion of damage was caused in three minutes. There was an additional magnitude 7.5 aftershock 36 hours later (the evening of Friday, September 20). [USGS Earthquake Report]

The epicenter of the quake was in Michoacán.

Later effects

In an effort to be better prepared for a future devastating earthquake, the Mexican government funded a state-of-the-art alert system that sends early-warning messages to Mexico City electronically from sensors located along coastal fault lines. In the event that seismic activity is detected, warning sirens will sound, giving city residents up to a minute's warning that a quake is coming. The last considerable earthquake in Mexico City had a magnitude of 7.4 Richter, in September 30th 1999 at 11:27am. Only one person died because of the fall of a pipe.

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