Did the East Pacific rise subduct beneath the North America plate (western Mexico)?

Morphology and magnetic survey of the Rivera-Cocos plate boundary of Colima, Mexico

“…They also proposed that at 1.5 Ma (Figures 2C and 2D), the part of this spreading center located north of the Rivera Transform was abandoned/decapitated by the formation of the Rivera Transform, a proposal that is consistent with the subsequent findings of Lonsdale (1995). Michaud et al (2001) proposed that the EPR-PCS may have extended even further northward than that proposed by Bandy (1992) and that the ridge segment north of the Rivera Transform has since been subducted beneath the Jalisco Block (Figure 2C).…”

“…Many previous studies have used the seafloor morphology and the seafloor spreading magnetic lineation data to try to resolve the kinematics and deformational history of this area. Some of these studies were of a regional focus (e.g., Mammerickx and Klitgord, 1982; Klitgord and Mammerickx, 1982;Atwater, 1989); whereas others were focused more directly on various aspects of the kinematics of the Rivera Plate (e.g., Eissler and McNally, 1984;DeMets and Stein, 1990;Bandy, 1992;Bandy and Pardo, 1994;DeMets and Wilson, 1997;Bandy et al, 1997Bandy et al, , 1998DeMets and Traylen, 2000;Jaramillo and Suárez, 2011) or on the complexities of the various boundaries of the Rivera Plate (e.g., Bourgois et al, 1988;Bandy et al, , 2005Kostoglodov and Bandy, 1995;Pardo and Suárez, 1995;Lonsdale, 1995;Michaud et al, 1997Michaud et al, , 2000Michaud et al, , 2001Serrato-Díaz et al, 2004). Although all of these studies have made significant contributions to understanding the tectonics of the Rivera plate, they have yet to provide a clear understanding of either the recent evolution of the northernmost segment of the EPR-PCS, or the nature of the Rivera-Cocos plate boundary.…”