Chixoy-Polochic Fault

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The Chixoy-Polochic Fault, also known as Cuilco-Chixoy-Polochic Fault, is a major fault zone in Guatemala and southeast Mexico. It runs in a light arc from the east coast of Guatemala to Chiapas, following the deep valleys of the Polochic River, Chixoy River and Cuilco River. [1]

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Extent, slip rate and total displacement

The Chixoy-Polochic Fault is a large, dominantly strike-slip, left-lateral fault that runs largely parallel to the Motagua Fault situated some 45 km to its south. Both fault zones are onshore extensions of the Bartlett Deep, or Cayman Trench of the Caribbean Sea, which marks the tectonic boundary between the Caribbean plate and the North American plate. [1] Both faults connect at sea west of the Guatemalan coast. To the west, the Polochic fault may branch onto the Tonala fault of western Chiapas. It does not continue at sea across the Pacific coastal plain and marine shelf. [2]

The Chixoy-Polochic fault has total displacement of 125 km, well constrained by the offset of Paleocene or Eocene laramide folds and thrusts. [3] Fault velocity has been estimated at 4.8 ± 2.3 mm/y over the past 10 ky, [4] 2.5–3.3 mm/y over the last 7–10 Myr, [5] and less than 5 mm/y during the current interseismic cycle. [6]

Seismicity

While recent seismic activity is more prominent in the Motagua fault, some studies suggest the Chixoy-Polochic Fault is still capable of producing major earthquakes. The magnitude 7.5–7.8 Mw 1816 Guatemala earthquake of western Guatemala has been ascribed to the Polochic Fault, [7] although this has been disputed. [8] [9] Most recent recorded fault activity includes at least for slip events between 17 ka and 13 ka BP, [4] and aseismic surface rupture over some of the past 5 centuries. [8] One or several intermediate to large earthquakes between 850 CE and 1,400 CE, including a cluster of 4 earthquakes over 60 years during the Classic Maya collapse. [8] The fault display a 5 km to 10 km deep zone of microseismicity [10] which may represent a locked zone. Only ≤ 5.6 Mw earthquakes have occurred on the fault since the beginning of regional instrumental records (1920 CE). [7]

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caribbean plate</span> A mostly oceanic tectonic plate including part of Central America and the Caribbean Sea

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">1976 Guatemala earthquake</span> February 1976 earthquake in Guatemala

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The Motagua Fault is a major, active left lateral-moving transform fault which cuts across Guatemala. It forms part of the tectonic boundary between the North American Plate and the Caribbean Plate. It is considered the onshore continuation of the Swan Islands Transform Fault and Cayman trench, which run under the Caribbean Sea. Its western end appears not to continue further than its surface trace, where it is covered by Cenozoic volcanics.

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Lake Chichoj

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chortis Block</span> Geologic formation in Central America.

The Chortis Block is a 400–600 km (250–370 mi)-wide continental fragment in Central America located in the northwest corner of the oceanic Caribbean Plate.

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. Red beds, evaporites and marine limestone from the Mesozoic overlie these rocks. A karst landscape formed in the thick limestone units across the north of the country. During a collisional orogeny, these Paleozoic and Mesozoic rocks were uplifted, thrust and folded as the Central Guatemalan Cordillera. Paleogene rocks from the early Cenozoic include volcanic and marine clastic rocks, associated with high rates of erosion.

The 2022 Guatemala earthquake occurred on the early morning of February 16, 2022 in the southern regions of Guatemala. The quake measured a moment magnitude of 6.2 and reached a peak intensity of VI (Strong) on the Modified Mercalli Intensity scale. Damage was widespread but light in and around the capital, Guatemala City, resulting mostly in cracked walls and rockslides.

The Tancheng-Lujiang Fault is a large fault in the east China. It was named after it was initially discovered that it starts from Tancheng, Shandong Province in the north and reaches the Lujiang County in Anhui Province in the south. In fact, the northern section of the Tan-Lu fault has been extending along the north-north-east direction through the Bohai Sea and northeast China to the Sea of Okhotsk, with a length of more than 2,400 kilometers in China. In the history of the earth, its southern section also extended to today's Mount Lu for a time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maya Block</span> Tectonic block under the Yucatan Peninsula

The Maya Block, also known as the Maya Terrane, Yucatan Block, or Yucatan–Chiapas Block, is a physiographic or geomorphic region and tectonic or crustal block in the southernmost portion of the North American Plate.

The Chortis Highlands is a highland region in northern Central America, which covers portions of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

The 1991 Guatemala earthquake occurred on September 18 at 3:48 a.m. local time. The epicenter was 60 miles southwest of Guatemala City. The shock was assigned a magnitude of 5.3 on the Richter scale, later assigned with a magnitude of 6.2. It caused 25 deaths, over 200 injuries and left 1,000 people without homes.

References

  1. 1 2 Ortega-Gutiérrez, Fernando; et al. (2007). "The Maya-Chortís Boundary: A Tectonostratigraphic Approach" (PDF). International Geology Review. 49 (11): 996–1024. Bibcode:2007IGRv...49..996O. doi:10.2747/0020-6814.49.11.996.[ permanent dead link ]
  2. ↑ Keppie, J. Duncan; Morán-Zenteno, Dante J. (2005-05-01). "Tectonic Implications of Alternative Cenozoic Reconstructions for Southern Mexico and the Chortis Block". International Geology Review. 47 (5): 473–491. Bibcode:2005IGRv...47..473K. doi:10.2747/0020-6814.47.5.473. ISSN   0020-6814.
  3. ↑ Burkart, Burke (1978-06-01). "Offset across the Polochic fault of Guatemala and Chiapas, Mexico". Geology. 6 (6): 328. Bibcode:1978Geo.....6..328B. doi:10.1130/0091-7613(1978)6<328:OATPFO>2.0.CO;2. ISSN   0091-7613.
  4. 1 2 Authemayou, Christine; Brocard, Gilles; Teyssier, Christian; Suski, Barbara; Cosenza, Beatriz; Morán-Ical, Sergio; González-Véliz, Claussen Walther; Aguilar-Hengstenberg, Miguel Angel; Holliger, Klaus (2012-07-01). "Quaternary seismo-tectonic activity of the Polochic Fault, Guatemala" (PDF). Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth. 117 (B7): B07403. Bibcode:2012JGRB..117.7403A. doi:10.1029/2012JB009444. ISSN   2156-2202.
  5. ↑ Brocard, Gilles; Teyssier, Christian; Dunlap, Walker James; Authemayou, Christine; Simon-Labric, Thibaud; Cacao-Chiquín, Eric Noé; Gutiérrez-Orrego, Axel; Morán-Ical, Sergio (2011-12-01). "Reorganization of a deeply incised drainage: role of deformation, sedimentation and groundwater flow". Basin Research. 23 (6): 631–651. Bibcode:2011BasR...23..631B. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2117.2011.00510.x. ISSN   1365-2117.
  6. ↑ Lyon-Caen, H.; Barrier, E.; Lasserre, C.; Franco, A.; Arzu, I.; Chiquin, L.; Chiquin, M.; Duquesnoy, T.; Flores, O. (2006-10-01). "Kinematics of the North American–Caribbean-Cocos plates in Central America from new GPS measurements across the Polochic-Motagua fault system" (PDF). Geophysical Research Letters. 33 (19): L19309. Bibcode:2006GeoRL..3319309L. doi:10.1029/2006GL027694. ISSN   1944-8007.
  7. 1 2 White, Randall A. "The Guatemala earthquake of 1816 on the Chixoy-Polochic fault". Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America. 75 (2): 455–473.
  8. 1 2 3 Brocard, Gilles; Anselmetti, Flavio S.; Teyssier, Christian (2016-11-15). "Guatemala paleoseismicity: from Late Classic Maya collapse to recent fault creep". Scientific Reports. 6 (1): 36976. Bibcode:2016NatSR...636976B. doi:10.1038/srep36976. ISSN   2045-2322. PMC   5109539 . PMID   27845383.
  9. ↑ Guzmán-Speziale, Marco (2010-12-01). "Beyond the Motagua and Polochic faults: Active strike-slip faulting along the Western North America–Caribbean plate boundary zone". Tectonophysics. 496 (1–4): 17–27. Bibcode:2010Tectp.496...17G. doi:10.1016/j.tecto.2010.10.002.
  10. ↑ Franco, A.; Molina, E.; Lyon-Caen, H.; Vergne, J.; Monfret, T.; Nercessian, A.; Cortez, S.; Flores, O.; Monterosso, D. (2009-11-01). "Seismicity and Crustal Structure of the Polochic-Motagua Fault System Area (Guatemala)". Seismological Research Letters. 80 (6): 977–984. doi:10.1785/gssrl.80.6.977. ISSN   0895-0695.

15°28′N89°22′W / 15.467°N 89.367°W / 15.467; -89.367

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