Relative Motion Between the Rivera and North American Plates Determined from the Slip Directions of Earthquakes

So far, the direction and rate of relative motion between the Rivera and the North American plates (RIV-NAM) has been determined by the combination of two Euler poles: Rivera (RIV), with respect to Pacific (PAC), and PAC with respect to North America. Here, we estimate the relative motion of this plate pair (RIV-NAM) assuming that the horizontal projection of the direction of slip of the earthquakes occurring on the RIV-NAM boundaries reflect their relative plate motion. A catalog of earthquakes for which focal mechanisms are reported since 1976 is used in the analysis. Earthquakes were considered in the three segments of the RIV-NAM plate boundary: the subduction zone of the Rivera plate beneath the Jalisco block, the Tres Marias Escarpment and the events associated with the Tamayo Fracture Zone. The best fitting Euler pole is determined using a grid search of 64 potential poles. The slip direction predicted for each grid point is compared to the slip direction of the focal mechanisms of the earthquakes on the plate boundary. The best fitting Euler pole, determined in a root mean square sense (RMS), is located at 21.8°N, 107.6°W. A rate of rotation of 5.3°/year is estimated assuming the seismic earthquake cycle of the 1932 and 1995 great earthquakes represents a lower bound of the rate of plate motion in the subduction zone. The best fitting Euler pole shows that the subduction of the Rivera plate takes place in a direction perpendicular to the trench with a relative velocity of 4.3 cm/year, offshore Manzanillo. The rate of relative motion RIV-NAM decreases from SE to NW. North of approximately 21°N, the subduction of the Rivera plate becomes oblique to the trench and the relative velocity between the two plates decreases to an average of 1.9 cm/year. This slow rate of convergence may explain the rapid decrease of seismicity in the trench and the apparent absence of large earthquakes in this region. In the Tres Marias Escarpment, our best-fitting pole suggests that subduction stops, giving way to high-angle reverse faulting perpendicular to the Tres Marias Escarpment, in agreement with the reverse faulting earthquakes occurring here. To the north of 22.5°N, the slip predicted by the best-fitting pole suggests right-lateral faulting in a direction parallel to the Tamayo Fracture Zone, at a very low velocity (0.5–1.0 cm/year). The best fitting Euler pole determined here lies very close to the RIV-NAM plate boundary in the vicinity of the Tamayo Fracture Zone. This location of our best fitting Euler pole explains the low relative plate velocity, the relatively low level of seismic activity and the presence of a broad zone of deformation that accommodates the RIV-NAM motion.