'MEXICO'S SEISMIC THREAT'

Mexico : Late one night in September, Victor Cruz, a geophysicist at Mexico's National Autonomous University, submitted an article-

To a scientific journal  describing progress on a network of underwater seismic sensors to be deployed off Mexico's Pacific coast.

The network focusing on a seismically active area known as the Guerrero Gap, would track sea floor deformation and so-called silent slips, he wrote with the goal of mitigating the human risks of earthquakes and Tsunamis.

About an hour After Dr Cruz sent the article, an 8.2 magnitude earthquake rocked the southern part of the country -the strongest to hit Mexico in more than a century.

Two weeks later, a second quake killed hundreds around Mexico city.

As this country recovers, one of Latin America's seismologist research projects is also feeling a jolt.

''We want to have a better understanding and go faster with our research,'' said Josue Tago, a seismologist working to build the seismic network.

''The research that we do can help save lives, and that's a different kind of motivation.''

All along Mexico's west coast, the Cocos and North American tectonic plates meet, the former sliding under the latter. This so-called subduction zone yields periodic earthquakes, which release the energy building up as the plates push against each other.

The Guerrero Gap, just offshore, is of particular concern to scientists because of its proximity to Mexico city -about 200 miles away. The new network, which relies on GPS, pressure and seismic data. will analyze tectonic plate movement.

To do that, researchers will install sensors and take preliminary measurements in November. Then, over the next four years, a group of more than  50 scientists  based in Japan and Mexico will gather data-

Create computational models of earthquakes and tsunamis and generate maps of coastal areas near the gaps at risk for the next big one.

But two recent quakes have also highlighted differing scientific opinion about which parts of Mexico are now the most likely to yield the next earthquake.

The zone along the coast of the state of Michoacan, which produced the giant quake of 1985? Somewhere southeast of the Guerrero Gap? The gap itself?