What would have caused the failure of Cerro del Chiquihuite

Today a the chipping of Chiquihuite Hill in Tlalnepantla, Mexico State. This caused the collapse of neighboring houses and the disappearance of people. Faced with this situation, the municipal president of this municipality, Raciel Pérez, pointed out that it was about the detachment of two rocks and that probably it was because of the rains.

According to the National Center for Disaster Prevention (CENAPRED) and the National Coordination of Civil Protection (CNPC), a breakdown is the sudden separation or rupture of a mass, which in this case can be rocks, cobblestones, hills, etc. It is detailed that floods are the main culprits for this type of damage: “The longer the water stays and the greater the thickness of the water volume, the more damage it causes», Is explained in the document Hazard diagnosis and disaster risk identification in Mexico.

In this writing, it is specified that disintegration of a hill can be caused by heavy rainfall which causes flooding. “Flooding can occur due to rains in the region, overflowing rivers, rising mean sea level, rupture of banks, dykes and dams, or due to water discharges from tanks “, it is detailed.

It is mentioned that these phenomena caused by flooding damage property, kill people, cause soil erosion and sediment deposition. They even affect crops and wildlife. It should be noted that they are one of the natural phenomena that cause the most loss of human and economic life.

In that case the slopes, the decline of a hill or a mountain, play a fundamental role in this type of disaster, because its instability occurs when the balance of rocks and earth is upset or lost and they move by the action of gravity.

In the document Causes favoring landslides and prevention measures It is reported that every year in Mexico there are many cases of instability of slopes “Mainly during the rainy season, which sometimes severely affects populations and communication routes.”

Likewise, it is detailed that “the stability of the slopes depends on the conditioning or on internal factors which depend on the nature of the soils and rocks, such as: geology, use of the soil and vegetation, the shape of the land (slope), weathering and degree of fracturing.

It is mentioned that the main cause that triggers instability of slopes in Mexico, and which can cause the hills to disintegrate, is rain, followed by earthquakes. However, there are a large number of cases that can also be triggered by human activities such as deforestation, logging, overloading, water leaks and excavations, which increase the likelihood of causing a landslide.

These types of disasters have been experienced for decades, the first of which there is a recording dates from February 23, 1998 in Baja California when it was reported that many houses had collapsed due to disintegrating hills and landslides.

The strongest, so far, has been September 28, 1998 where another dislocation of a hill was reported due to intense rainfall where the water level rose by more than a meter causing the loss of 6 human lives, 100 families affected and material damage as yet unquantifiable.

Each year, these types of accidents are reported, even last September 8, 2021 The National Guard reported that in Puebla a hill broke out on the highway. Faced with this, Civil Protection asked the population to take extreme precautions.

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