On the other sides it is surrounded by transform faults and trenches created by the movement of these plates.

[4] The most seismic activity occurs along the plate boundary between Caribbean and Cocos in a N–E trending Wadati–Benioff zone, split into two sections, one with a shallow dip, the other with a far more steep decline.

[9] The earthquake severed communications with rural hill and coastal villages in Honduras, and it frightened thousands of people into leaving their homes.

Early reports listed only one fatality; a man from San Pedro Sula suffered a heart attack from the tremor's initial rupture.

Belize City, 100 mi (160 km) to the north, experienced the shaking but reported no damage.