The Cerro Prieto Fault is a transform fault

Transform fault

A transform fault or transform boundary, also known as conservative plate boundary since these faults neither create nor destroy lithosphere, is a type of fault whose relative motion is predominantly horizontal in either sinistral or dextral direction. Furthermore, transform faults end abruptly...

 located in far northern Baja California

Baja California

Baja California officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is both the northernmost and westernmost state of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1953, the area was known as the North...

. It runs between the Cerro Prieto

Cerro Prieto

Cerro Prieto is a small rural town located in the county of La Misión in the northwestern part of the Mexican state of Hidalgo....

 spreading center located southwest of Mexicali

Mexicali

Mexicali is the capital of the State of Baja California, seat of the Municipality of Mexicali, and 2nd largest city in Baja California. The City of Mexicali has a population of 689,775, according to the 2010 census, while the population of the entire metropolitan area reaches 936,826.The city...

, and the Wagner Basin

Wagner Basin

The Wagner Basin is a submarine depression in the far northern part of the Gulf of California. It is the northernmost underwater depression associated with the East Pacific Rise. The depression is a result of subsidence caused by the extensional forces imparted by a spreading center...

, another spreading center which lies under the Gulf of California

Gulf of California

The Gulf of California is a body of water that separates the Baja California Peninsula from the Mexican mainland...

. These spreading centers are part of the East Pacific Rise

East Pacific Rise

The East Pacific Rise is a mid-oceanic ridge, a divergent tectonic plate boundary located along the floor of the Pacific Ocean. It separates the Pacific Plate to the west from the North American Plate, the Rivera Plate, the Cocos Plate, the Nazca Plate, and the Antarctic Plate...

, the northern leg of which has formed the Gulf of California by steadily rifting the Baja California Peninsula

Baja California Peninsula

The Baja California peninsula , is a peninsula in northwestern Mexico. Its land mass separates the Pacific Ocean from the Gulf of California. The Peninsula extends from Mexicali, Baja California in the north to Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur in the south.The total area of the Baja California...

 away from the mainland of Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

.

Seismic studies indicate a linear trend of hypocenter

Hypocenter

The hypocenter refers to the site of an earthquake or a nuclear explosion...

s to the northwest of Cerro Prieto which is interpreted as a continuation of the Cerro Prieto Fault some 45 km to the northwest across the international border about 7 km into southern California.