The Geodynamics of the Nicaraguan territory is governed by the subduction of the Coco plate with respect to the Caribbean plate and the volcanic chain. Structurally Nicaragua is characterized by Fallamiento and Alineamiento with preferential direction N-S, NW-SE, NW-SW, E-W.
Tectonic Map of Plates
The tectonic plates the Coco and the Caribbean hit in the Ocean, 100Km approximately parallel to the coast of the Pacific of Central America. The white arrows indicate direction and speed of the movement. Great earthquakes happen in the zone of the shock. The volcanos form in a parallel narrow strip to the zone of the shock.
A. Present-day plate structure, oceanic magnetic anomaly, and tectonic terrane map of southern Mexico, Central America, and adjacent ocean basins showing terrane nomenclature used in this chapter. Boxes show Frey Pedro study area in east-central Honduras and Teloloapan region of Guerrero State, southern Mexico, which exhibits similar stratigraphic, tectonic, and geochemical history to Frey Pedro study area. Definitions of Caribbean terranes from: Case et al. (1990) for the Caribbean Sea area, Marshall et al. (2000) for Costa Rica and Panama, and Chapter 5 of this dissertation for Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador: NCT = Northern Chortis terrane; CCT = Central Chortis terrane; ECT = Eastern Chortis terrane; SCT = Southern Chortis terrane; ST = Siuna terrane. Definitions of southern Mexican terranes from Campa and Coney (1983) and Dickinson and Lawton (2001): J = Juarez; O = Oaxaca; M = Mixteca; X = Xolopa; SM = Sierra Madre; C = Cohuila; G = Guerrero; MA = Maya. Abbreviations of Guerrero subterranes: T = Teloloapan; A = Arteaga; Ac = Arcelia; Z = Zihuatanejo. Other abbreviations: ES = El Salvador; AB = Arperos basin (modified from Tardy et al., 1994); TMVB = Trans-Mexican volcanic belt; MAT = Middle America trench; EPR = East Pacific Rise; CT = Cayman trough; LIP = large igneous province. Magnetic anomalies shown in the Pacific Ocean are compiled from Wilson (1996), Klitgord and Mammerickx (1982), and Barckhausen et al. (2001) and Cayman trough anomalies are from Rosencrantz (1994). Plate motions relative to a fixed Caribbean plate are from DeMets et al. (2000) and DeMets (2001). Triangles represent Quaternary arc and intraplate volcanoes. B. Topographic map of northern Central America showing physiographic expression of terranes shown in 1A and boxed location of Frey Pedro study area. Note that structural grain and prominent faults like the Guayape fault system (GFS) are at right angles to the trend of the present-day Middle America trench and related volcanic arc (black triangles). Key to abbreviations: NCT = Northern Chortis terrane; CCT = Central Chortis terrane; ECT = Eastern Chortis terrane; SCT = Southern Chortis terrane; ST = Siuna terrane; SIFZ = Swan Island transform fault; PFZ = Polochic fault zone; MFZ = Motagua fault zone; NNR = Northern Nicaraguan Rise; SNR = Southern Nicaraguan Rise; HB = Honduran borderlands; HRS = Honduran rift system; ND = Nicaraguan depression; MCSC = Mid Cayman Spreading Center. Heavy dotted line offshore is 100 meter bathymetric contour.
