The Carmen Fault is a right lateral-moving

transform fault A transform fault or transform boundary, is a fault (geology), fault along a plate boundary where the motion (physics), motion is predominantly Horizontal plane, horizontal. It ends abruptly where it connects to another plate boundary, either an ...

located on the seafloor of the southern

Gulf of California The Gulf of California (), also known as the Sea of Cortés (''Mar de Cortés'') or Sea of Cortez, or less commonly as the Vermilion Sea (''Mar Vermejo''), is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja California peninsula from ...

. It links the

Guaymas Basin The Guaymas Basin is the largest marginal rift Depression (geology), basin located in the Gulf of California. It made up of the northern and southern Trough (geology), trough and is linked to the Guaymas Fault to the north and the Carmen Fault to t ...

to the north with the Carmen Basin to the south. All these features are part of the

Gulf of California Rift Zone The Gulf of California Rift Zone (GCRZ) is the northernmost extension of the East Pacific Rise which extends some from the mouth of the Gulf of California to the southern terminus of the San Andreas Fault at the Salton Sink. The GCRZ is an i ...

, the northern extension of the

East Pacific Rise The East Pacific Rise (EPR) is a mid-ocean rise (usually termed an oceanic rise and not a mid-ocean ridge due to its higher rate of spreading that results in less elevation increase and more regular terrain), at a divergent tectonic plate bound ...

. A magnitude 6.3 earthquake occurred along the Carmen Fault on January 19, 2017.USGS Report
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References

Seismic faults of Mexico {{tectonics-stub