Geology of Nicaragua

Volcanoes erupted in the Paleogene and within the last 2.5 million years of the Quaternary, due to the subduction of the Cocos Plate, which drives melting and magma creation.

Many of these volcanoes are in the Nicaraguan Depression paralleled by the northwest-trending Middle America Trench which marks the Caribbean-Cocos plate boundary.

The Masaya Caldera Complex erupted 460,000 and 50,000 years ago with the Las Sierras Formation as a Pliocene-Pleistocene basement rock.

[1] Another active volcano is the San Cristobal Volcanic Complex in the northwest, which erupted in the 1500s and 1600s and again at a reduced level in 1971, with tholeiitic, calc-alkaline and andesite material.

[3] Between 1943 and 1977, seismic and drilling surveys were done on the Miskito Basin off the eastern shore in search of oil.