The Middle America Trench is a major subduction zone, an oceanic trench in the eastern Pacific Ocean off the southwestern coast of Middle America, stretching from central Mexico to Costa Rica. 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 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.
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In this Dossier
Middle America Trench in the context of Puerto Rico Trench
The Puerto Rico Trench is located on the boundary between the North Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea, parallel to and north of Puerto Rico, where the oceanic trench reaches the deepest points in the Atlantic Ocean. The trench is associated with a complex transition from the Lesser Antilles frontal subduction zone between the South American plate and Caribbean plate to the oblique subduction zone and the strike-slip transform fault zone between the North American plate and Caribbean plate, which extends from the Puerto Rico Trench at the Puerto Rico–Virgin Islands microplate through the Cayman Trough at the Gonâve microplate to the Middle America Trench at the Cocos plate.
Constituting the deepest points in the Atlantic Ocean, the trench is 810 kilometres (503 mi) long and has a maximum documented depth between 8,376 metres (27,480 ft) and 8,740 metres (28,675 ft). The deepest point is commonly referred to as the Milwaukee Deep, with the Brownson Deep naming the seabed surrounding it. However, more recently, the latter term has also been used interchangeably with the former to refer to this point. The exact point was identified by the DSSV Pressure Drop using a state-of-the-art Kongsberg EM124 multibeam sonar in 2018, and then directly visited and its depth verified by the crewed submersible Deep-Submergence Vehicle DSV Limiting Factor (a Triton 36000/2 model submersible) piloted by Victor Vescovo.
Middle America Trench in the context of Oblique subduction
Oblique subduction is a form of subduction (i.e. a tectonic process involving the convergence of two plates where the denser plate descends into Earth's interior) for which the convergence direction differs from 90° to the plate boundary. Most convergent boundaries involve oblique subduction, particularly in the Ring of Fire including the Ryukyu, Aleutian, Central America and Chile subduction zones. In general, the obliquity angle is between 15° and 30°. Subduction zones with high obliquity angles include Sunda trench (ca. 60°) and Ryukyu arc (ca. 50°).
Obliquity in plate convergence causes differences in dipping angle and subduction velocity along the plate boundary. Tectonic processes including slab roll-back, trench retreat (i.e. a tectonic response to the process of slab roll-back that moves the trench seaward) and slab fold (i.e. buckling of subducting slab due to phase transition) may also occur.