The Middle America Trench is a major subduction zone, an

oceanic trench Oceanic trenches are prominent, long, narrow topography, topographic depression (geology), depressions of the seabed, ocean floor. They are typically wide and below the level of the surrounding oceanic floor, but can be thousands of kilometers ...

in the eastern

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

off the southwestern coast of Middle America, stretching from central

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

. The trench is 1,700 miles (2,750 km) long and is 21,880 feet (6,669 m) at its deepest point. The trench is the boundary between the Rivera, Cocos, and Nazca plates on one side and the North American and

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

plates on the other. It is the 18th-deepest trench in the world. Many large earthquakes have occurred in the area of the Middle America Trench.

Division

The Middle America Trench can be divided into a northern and a southern section. The division, however, is not the same in its seaward side and its landward side. In the seaward side, the northern section, called the Acapulco Trench, runs from

Jalisco Jalisco, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Jalisco, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. It is located in western Mexico and is bordered by s ...

to the Tehuantepec Ridge, and the southern section, called the Guatemala Trench, runs from the Tehuantepec Ridge to the Cocos Ridge. 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. The dividing point in the landward side is about 400 km east of that in the seaward side.

References

{{Authority control Plate tectonics Oceanic trenches of the Pacific Ocean Geography of Central America Subduction zones Seismic faults of North America