Middle America Trench
Subduction zone in the eastern Pacific off the southwestern coast of Middle America
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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 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.