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This zigzag type of fault trace is known as "mole track", which is best developed in hard-packed, brittle surface materials. The Motagua Fault has been responsible for several major earthquakes in Guatemala's history, including the 7.5 M w Guatemala 1976 earthquake, and is also notable for its significant visible fault trace. [4]
The Motagua Fault, which crosses through Guatemala, is a transform boundary between the southern edge of the North American plate and the northern edge of the Caribbean plate. New Zealand's Alpine Fault is another active transform boundary. The Dead Sea Transform (DST) fault which runs through the Jordan River Valley in the Middle East.
The geology of Guatemala encompasses rocks divided into two tectonic blocks. The Maya Block in the north has igneous and metamorphic North American Craton basement rocks , overlain by late Paleozoic metasedimentary rocks, which experienced deformation during the Devonian .
Plate tectonics in the Americas Motagua Fault (green line) and the Middle America Trench (pink line). Earthquakes are relatively frequent occurrences in Guatemala. [1] The country lies in a major fault zone known as the Motagua and Chixoy-Polochic fault complex, which cuts across Guatemala and forms the tectonic boundary between the Caribbean plate and the North American plate.
On the landward side, the division is demarcated along the Polochic-Motagua fault system (see Motagua Fault), the boundary between the North American plate and the Caribbean plate. [3] The dividing point in the landward side is about 400 km east of that in the seaward side.
A map of Guatemala. Guatemala is mountainous, except for the south coastal area and the vast northern lowlands of Petén department. The country is located in Central America and bounded to the north and west by Mexico, to the east by Belize and by the Gulf of Honduras, to the east by Honduras, to the southeast by El Salvador, and to the south by the Pacific Ocean.
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Bathymetry of the northeast corner of the Caribbean plate showing the major faults and plate boundaries; view looking south-west. The main bathymetric features of this area include: the Lesser Antilles Volcanic Arc; the old inactive volcanic arc of the Greater Antilles (Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and Hispaniola); the Muertos Trough; and the Puerto Rico Trench formed at the plate boundary ...