This pictogram is one of the most established known records of tremors in the Americas

The composed sequence in a sixteenth century codex was made by a pre-Hispanic human progress

A 50-page codex of brilliant, complex pictograms that dates to the mid sixteenth century incorporates the most incredibly complete — and one of the most seasoned — composed sequences of early quakes in the Americas.

The Telleriano-Remensis, which was made by an obscure pre-Hispanic civilization, depicts 12 separate quakes that shook what’s presently Mexico and Central America from 1460 to 1542, specialists report August 25 in Seismological Research Letters. The renowned codex was composed by experts called tlacuilos, signifying “the people who compose painting” in the Nahuatl language spoken by Aztecs and other pre-Hispanic civic establishments nearby (SN: 3/13/20).

Utilizing other codices from the locale, specialists had recently distinguished the blend of two pictographs that means a tremor. One shows four helices around a focal circle or eye, and represents ollin, signifying “development” in Nahuatl. The other pictograph shows at least one rectangular layers loaded up with dabs, and means tlalli, or “earth.” For daytime tremors, the eye is open; for evening time shakes, it’s shut.

Seismologist Gerardo Suárez of the National Autonomous University of Mexico and social anthropologist Virginia García-Acosta of the Center for Research and Higher Studies in Social Anthropology, both in Mexico City, pored over the Telleriano-Remensis. The scientists were searching for portrayals of tremors, contrasting what they found with records of shakes in other pre-Hispanic codices and texts composed later by Spanish ministers.

The Telleriano-Remensis utilizes a pictorial portrayal of a 52-year cycle to generally date the shakes. A long time are addressed by four signs—tecpatl (blade), calli (house), tochtli (bunny) and acatl (reed) — organized in 13 changes. Those pictures helped the analysts match some pictorial records of shudders, remembering one for 1507, to later depictions of the occasions.

Minimal more is related with regards to the exact areas of these tremors or the harm they caused, albeit one picture recommends that a shake set off flooding that suffocated champions. Other codices might contain more pieces of information, the specialists say, which could assist with making a more complete sequence of the shudders that shook this antiquated world.