A new estimate for present‐day Cocos‐Caribbean Plate motion: Implications for slip along the Central American Volcanic Arc

Abstract

Velocities from 153 continuously‐operating GPS sites on the Caribbean, North American, and Pacific plates are combined with 61 newly estimated Pacific‐Cocos seafloor spreading rates and additional marine geophysical data to derive a new estimate of present‐day Cocos‐Caribbean plate motion. A comparison of the predicted Cocos‐Caribbean direction to slip directions of numerous shallow‐thrust subduction earthquakes from the Middle America trench between Costa Rica and Guatemala shows the slip directions to be deflected 10° clockwise from the plate convergence direction, supporting the hypothesis that frequent dextral strike‐slip earthquakes along the Central American volcanic arc result from partitioning of oblique Cocos‐Caribbean plate convergence. Linear velocity analysis for forearc locations in Nicaragua and Guatemala predicts 14±2 mm yr−1 of northwestward trench‐parallel slip of the forearc relative to the Caribbean plate, possibly decreasing in magnitude in El Salvador and Guatemala, where extension east of the volcanic arc complicates the tectonic setting.