Volcano

The activity of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt has aided in the physiographic production of Mexico City’s soil through a multitude of lava flows, some of which have helped create the basins in which Mexico City’s original lakes were located.This belt of volcanoes has also been critical to the development of the secondary aquifer in the Mezquital, a system formed by “volcanic rocks from the Quaternary and volcanic rocks pertaining to the Tarango Formation.” The Tarango Formation allows for water to move through it quite easily due to the large grains that compose it, however, the flow of water is disrupted by lower deposits of clay.

Volcanoes maintain not only a physical presence in the city, but a spiritual one as well. Other volcanoes are dormant and become sites for additional housing or sometimes sites of extraction, as with Xaltepec, a volcano of the Santa Caterina range on the eastern side of the City in Tlahuac near Iztapalapa. The basalt and sand formed within the crater of the volcano have been mined for use as a construction material, particularly in the building of Mexico City’s new airport.