The Guerrero Accelerograph Network

Abstract

The Guerrero network consists of 30 digital strong motion accelerographs in Guerrero and neighboring states, Mexico. The network was designed to record accelerograms from large earthquakes on part of the Mexico subduction thrust. The network is located above a mature seismic gap, and within the next few years it is likely to record one or more earthquakes with magnitude near 8. The 30 sites for the Guerrero accelerograph network were selected to be on the best rock available, consistent with the network geometry and secondary siting criteria. The digital instruments have operated extremely well during the past seven years, producing data in a quality and quantity that exceeded our original expectations. As of December 1991, the network had produced over 927 accelerograms from 385 earthquakes. The most important records to date have come from the Sept 19 and Sept 21, 1985 Ms = 8.1, 7.6 and April 25, 1989 Ms = 6.9 earthquakes. At smaller magnitudes, the network has produced an excellent set of seismograms from 26 different earthquakes with magnitudes 4.2 and up. It has also recorded numerous seismograms from eyents with magnitudes down to 3.0 and below, although these smaller events rarely trigger more than a few stations. Locations of events that have triggered the network are concentrated near the coa5t at the two ends of the Guerrero gap, where the limits of the gap are defined by rupture zones of the largest historical earthquakes.