Damage from the El Mayor-Cucapah earthquake, April 2010: Why society cannot afford to ignore seismic risks to agricultural regions
Abstract
The M7.2 El Mayor-Cucapah earthquake of April 4, 2010 in Mexico’s Baja California caused extensive damage to the agricultural area of Mexicali Valley. The damage included wide-spread liquefaction and lateral spreading which destroyed or damaged irrigation canals. Without water, wheat, alfalfa, and other crops were lost. Fields were cut by fissures and partially buried by massive sand blows. Regional tilting from the earthquake was a serious issue for the gravity-controlled irrigation system. Ruptured canals and groundwater from sand blows flooded fields, roads, and towns. Flooding further damaged crops and brought contamination with it. Fissures and scarps through farm communities cracked buildings; ruptured water, sewer, and other pipelines; and made roads temporarily difficult to pass. Economically, farmers, seasonal farm workers, and agricultural suppliers were affected; reducing their ability to consume the goods and services of businesses unrelated to agriculture. Similar damage was observed in earlier earthquakes over the past 100 years. Society quickly forgets how the earth responds to strong shaking. We hope to provide a vivid portrait of this agricultural disaster so that other farming communities prone to strong seismic shaking may visualize what can happen from their own inevitable future earthquake. Fissure and sand blows southeast of Cucapah, Baja California, April 16, 2010.
Heavily damaged irrigation canal northwest of Zacamoto, Baja California, April 15, 2010.- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2010
- Bibcode:
- 2010AGUFM.T53B2137S
- Keywords:
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- 6304 POLICY SCIENCES / Benefit-cost analysis;
- 6600 PUBLIC ISSUES;
- 7200 SEISMOLOGY