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Tectonic and seismic map of Puerto Rico Trench area. Arrows show direction of plate movements. USGS. On 11 October 1918, the western coast of Puerto Rico was hit by a major earthquake which caused a tsunami. The 1918 earthquake was caused by an old left-lateral strike-slip fault near the Mona Passage.
At this trench the North American Plate is being subducted by the Caribbean Plate. This subduction zone is responsible for the volcanism of the West Indies to the southeast of Puerto Rico. A major transform fault extends from the Puerto Rico trench along the northern coast of Puerto Rico and on through the Cayman Trough to the coast of Central ...
The Puerto Rico–Virgin Islands microplate (PRVI), also known as the Puerto Rico–Virgin Islands block, is a tectonic microplate formed at the boundary zone between the Caribbean plate and the obliquely subducting North American plate.
The modern understanding of the plate tectonic cycle predicts that remnants of submerged plates will be found near subduction zones. However, a new high-resolution model shows that these remnants ...
The Puerto Rico Trench is at a complex transition from the subduction boundary to the south and the transform boundary to the west. The eastern boundary is a subduction zone, the Lesser Antilles subduction zone , where oceanic crust of the South American plate is being subducted under the Caribbean plate.
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 ...
Obduction zones occurs when the continental plate is pushed under the oceanic plate, but this is unusual as the relative densities of the tectonic plates favours subduction of the oceanic plate. This causes the oceanic plate to buckle and usually results in a new mid-ocean ridge forming and turning the obduction into subduction. [citation needed]
The Puerto Rico Trench, the largest and deepest trench in the Atlantic, is located about 71 mi (114 km) north of Puerto Rico at the boundary between the Caribbean and North American plates. [93] It is 170 mi (270 km) long. [94] At its deepest point, named the Milwaukee Deep, it is almost 27,600 ft (8,400 m) deep. [93]