Chortis Block

The northern margin of the Chortis Block is the Motagua-Polochic fault of the North American-Caribbean strike-slip boundary.

Miocene-Holocene-aged rifts in the northern and western Chortis Block is the result of slow internal deformation.

The southern and eastern extent is roughly the Nicaragua-Costa Rica border and the offshore Hess Escarpment.

[3] Before the Early Carboniferous formation of Pangaea the Chortis Block thus formed part of the northern margin of Gondwana, located south of other Peri-Gondwanan terranes such as Oaxaca, Carolina, Yucatán, and Florida.

[3] Located in a largely unpopulated, mountainous region, the geology of which is poorly known, the Chortis Block is the only Precambrian-Palaeozoic continental crust on the Caribbean Plate and even its origin within North America has remained enigmatic and disputed for decades.