Rocío Castillo-Aja | Universidad de Guadalajara (original) (raw)

Papers by Rocío Castillo-Aja

Earthquakes along active continental margins and submarine landslides can produce tsunami along t... more Earthquakes along active continental margins and submarine landslides can produce tsunami along the coastline around the globe. The study of the tsunami sediments is even more complicated by occasional storms that can produce an inundation and leave sedimentary deposits as well. Nevertheless, both tsunamis and storms put in risk coastal communities worldwide. Therefore, understanding of such processes is crucial for the hazard analysis in the coastal areas. Recently, it has been shown that the variability in magnetic properties can be significant and any treatment without statistical evaluation may give random results (Cerný et al., 2016). Therefore, it is important to choose proper methodology of sampling due to natural variability of the sampled environment. In case of sediments, not only the variability can affect the results but also mechanical properties of the sediment. For that reason, it is always better to take some control samples. The most recent results of inundation deposit studies also show that proportional study of Ti and Fe in titanomagnetite can help to indicate its source (Cerný et al., 2016). It applies especially for volcanic material as original source containing finer grains of titanomagnetite. The wide range of Curie temperatures, where a gradual drop of magnetic susceptibility followed by a sharp decrease can be observed, is typical for diffusive fractionation in such volcanic material (Zhou et al., 2000). It has been shown that some inundation deposits on the Mexican Pacific coast contain titanomagnetite with similar proportion of Ti and Fe as some tephra samples produced by active volcanoes in Mexico. In concluding, it points out that the study of thermomagnetic curves can be considered also as a useful tool to indicate the source of titanomagnetite, especially if its origin is related to volcanic rocks.

Subduction zone earthquakes can generate abrupt vertical movement of the seafloor or submarine la... more Subduction zone earthquakes can generate abrupt vertical movement of the seafloor or submarine landslide. Both can produce a tsunami wave that can hit coastal areas. Such waves transport material which is usually deposited on flat plains and in topographic depressions on the coast. From this point of view, lagoons are ideal environments where tsunami deposits can be preserved. The studied sites were situated in lagoons on the active Mexican continental margin, where both storm and tsunami inundations can occur. The potential of magnetic proxies in marine inundation deposits studies is still under consideration, and there are some methodological difficulties. Our most recent results showed that: 1) magnetic studies may be useful to determine what material was the main source of magnetic minerals in sediments; 2) AMS can help to distinguish different hydrodynamic environments related to different layers; 3) primary sedimentary fabric in fine-grained lagoon sediments such clays may have developed lateral imbrication; 4) the lateral variability of AMS parameters can be significant and a test of horizontal variability in sedimentary beds should be performed before final interpretations.

Natural Hazards, Jun 18, 2022

Pure and Applied Geophysics, Mar 27, 2019

Historical documents revealed that on 27 August 1810 an earthquake affected the Loreto town and t... more Historical documents revealed that on 27 August 1810 an earthquake affected the Loreto town and the surrounding region, along 200 km of the coast of Baja California, Mexico, and damage was considerable due to strong ground motions. However, the 1810 Loreto earthquake, unlike other earthquakes of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, produced an extensive tsunami flooding on the eastern coast of Baja California, from Loreto to La Paz. We report here the historical account of this event and analyse the source of the related tsunami. Based on the historical record and the tectonic setting, we infer that this earthquake was produced along a transform fault, right-lateral strike slip fault, Farallon fault, on the Baja California Gulf. However, the associated tsunami was disproportionally large if compared with the earthquake intensity (IX) and approximate magnitude (7.4 Mw), fault style, and the relatively late tsunami arrival, i.e. an hour after the earthquake, suggesting that a submarine landslide, triggered by this earthquake, was the suspect source for the Loreto tsunami. We present here historical data and a numerical model of the Loreto 1810 tsunami to elucidate the source, using both the 1810 earthquake and a submarine landslide, and confirm that a submarine landslide is most likely the tsunami-triggering mechanism that followed the 1810 earthquake.

Seismological Research Letters, Dec 7, 2016

Modern earthquakes and tsunamis catalogs available online are compilations of earlier catalogs th... more Modern earthquakes and tsunamis catalogs available online are compilations of earlier catalogs that included some inaccurate information. Here, we present a thorough revision of tsunamigenic earthquakes that, in historical time, have affected the Mexican Pacific coast between Jalisco and Colima. This area is located in a complex tectonic setting where the Rivera-Cocos and North American plates have produced four M ≥ 8 earthquakes and two big tsunamis since the nineteenth century. We identified tsunamigenic earthquakes that were not previously documented in modern earthquake and tsunami catalogs available online through a careful reading of original historical archives and documents. Our results indicate the occurrence of 21 events; among those we report 2 earthquakes documented for the first time (1563 and 1816) for the Jalisco-Colima coast, and 8 large or medium intensity tsunamis also first reported (1816, 1818, 1900 [two tsunamis], 1911, 1933 [two tsunamis], and 1941) through documentary evidence. Our results demonstrate the need for a thorough investigation of historical documents and geological evidence of earthquakes and their tsunamis to accurately assess seismic and tsunami hazard.

Ciencias Espaciales, 2015

El trabajo propuesto pretende discutir el potencial de visualizaciones del tiempo desde una persp... more El trabajo propuesto pretende discutir el potencial de visualizaciones del tiempo desde una perspectiva teórica y práctica. Las preguntas teóricas abarcan las características del tiempo, la ampliación de las variables visuales de Bertin (1967) con las variables dinámicas de DiBiase et al. (1992) y una tipología de animaciones para estructurar el factor "tiempo" exhaustivamente. A partir de estas bases teóricas podemos analizar, cómo los Sistemas de Información Geográfica (SIG) permiten actualmente la visualización de datos temporales. Sin embargo, este análisis no se limita en una descripción de avances y limitaciones de los SIG, sino que intenta mostrar cómo datos espaciales exportados desde un SIG pueden ser enriquecidos mediante el tratamiento con software de autoría multimedia para la realización de visualizaciones animadas de procesos dinámicos. La actualización del Atlas de riesgos por fenómenos naturales del Estado de Jalisco se usará para ilustrar aspectos tanto teóricos como prácticos del presente artículo.

Journal Of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, Oct 1, 2018

The behavior of slip close to the trench during earthquakes is not well understood, and observati... more The behavior of slip close to the trench during earthquakes is not well understood, and observations of large earthquakes breaking the near trench fault surface are rare. The 1995 Mw 8.0 Jalisco earthquake seems to have broken the near‐trench area, as evidenced by large Ms‐Mw disparity, small high‐frequency radiated energy compared to total energy, and low Er/M0 ratios, in addition to several finite slip models showing large slip near the trench. However, slip models obtained using campaign Global Positioning System data suggest slip near shore. In this study we try to answer whether this event was a near‐trench event or not, by inverting teleseismic P, S, Rayleigh, and Love waves, as well as campaign Global Positioning System static offsets, either separately or jointly, to obtain the slip distribution on the fault as a function of time. We find two possible end‐member scenarios consistent with observed data: (1) coseismic slip distributed between coast and trench and no (or very little) postseismic slip and (2) coseismic slip principally near the trench with large (up to 1.8 m) aseismic slip occurring in the first 5–10 days after the earthquake, with a total moment corresponding to 16% of that of the event. We are unable to distinguish between these two end‐member scenarios by tsunami modeling and finally are neither able to conclude or exclude that the event was a typical near trench event.

Nuevo mundo mundos nuevos, 2020

En el mundo hispano de los siglos XVI a XIX, el conflicto y la negociacion fueron constantes como... more En el mundo hispano de los siglos XVI a XIX, el conflicto y la negociacion fueron constantes como via para lograr la articulacion entre las diversas corporaciones que integraban el orden social, cada una con sus propios privilegios y obligaciones. Cuando la politica de los Borbon para racionalizar la administracion de sus territorios de ultramar suscito nuevas tensiones entre representantes de la Corona y poblaciones locales, el empleo de la cartografia fue un recurso eficaz para trasmitir los argumentos de los pueblos y de sus grupos dirigentes a la jerarquia eclesiastica y otros representantes del monarca. Este trabajo analiza el uso de nuevas formas de representar el territorio que fueron utilizadas en el proceso de division de curatos en el obispado de Guadalajara, para obedecer el mandato real de reducir las grandes distancias entre cabeceras parroquiales y los feligreses.

Scientific Reports, 2020

Globally, instrumentally based assessments of tsunamigenic potential of subduction zones have und... more Globally, instrumentally based assessments of tsunamigenic potential of subduction zones have underestimated the magnitude and frequency of great events because of their short time record. Historical and sediment records of large earthquakes and tsunamis have expanded the temporal data and estimated size of these events. Instrumental records suggests that the Mexican Subduction earthquakes produce relatively small tsunamis, however historical records and now geologic evidence suggest that great earthquakes and tsunamis have whipped the Pacific coast of Mexico in the past. The sediment marks of centuries old-tsunamis validate historical records and indicate that large tsunamigenic earthquakes have shaken the Guerrero-Oaxaca region in southern Mexico and had an impact on a bigger stretch of the coast than previously suspected. We present the first geologic evidence of great tsunamis near the trench of a subduction zone previously underestimated as potential source for great earthquake...

Geofísica Internacional, 2018

The study of tsunami deposits has significantly advanced since the Chilean 2010 and Tohoku 2011 t... more The study of tsunami deposits has significantly advanced since the Chilean 2010 and Tohoku 2011 tsunamis providing opportunities to analyze tsunami deposits and their characteristics (Rubin et al., 2017). In tropical environments, the combination of multiple proxies has demonstrated to be a necessity to prove evidence of ancient earthquakes and tsunamis (Ramirez-Herrera et al., 2012, 2016; Williams et al., 2011). Challenges faced in the study of tsunami deposits in tropical areas frequently affected by hurricanes, lead to problems of differentiation between tsunami and storm deposits, and misinterpretations of climate/ seasonal changes.

Pure and Applied Geophysics, 2019

Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 2018

Marine Geology, 2019

Tsunamis are high energy events capable of leaving their imprint in the geological record. The we... more Tsunamis are high energy events capable of leaving their imprint in the geological record. The western Mexican Pacific coast, located in the Mexican Subduction Zone, is prone to large earthquakes (M ≥ 8.0) where tsunami hazard has been underrated. The geologic archive obtained in a sheltered coastal lagoon was analyzed applying a multi-proxy approach to reveal the occurrence of historical earthquakes in the Jalisco coast. Foraminifera and Ostracoda aid identifying earthquake and tsunami geologic evidence in this section of the Mexican Pacific coast, where tropical conditions prevail. We present the evidence of changes in stratigraphy, grain size, biostratigraphy supported by archaeomagnetic dating. They were complemented with published 210 Pb dating, magnetic properties, and historical data. We identified three events: the tsunami deposit left by the June 3rd, 1932 tsunami, produced by the largest earthquake (M = 8.2) recorded in instrumental history in México and the coseismic deformation resulting from the 1932 event, also a probable tsunami deposit likely produced by an historical earthquake in 1900, and the coseismic deformation associated to this event, and the coseismic deformation resulting produced by the 1563 earthquake. The site geomorphology, with a marginal lagoon closed by a little barrier 7 m ± 1 m above sea level, precludes tropical storms as responsible for marine incursions. This work contributes to strengthening the earthquake and associated tsunamis chronology, aiming to improve coastal hazard assessment for the area.

International Geology Review, 2015

ABSTRACT

Seismological Research Letters, 2016