The Vizcaino block is an anomalously shallow region of the western U.S continental margin located southwest of the Mendocino triple junction. It originated as part of the accretionary prism of the North America plate and was transferred to the Pacific plate in the Miocene as the Pacific-North America plate boundary...
The Gorda Escarpment is a north facing scarp immediately south of the Mendocino transform fault (the Gorda/Juan de Fuca-Pacific plate boundary) between 126°W and the Mendocino triple junction. It elevates the seafloor at the northern edge of the Vizcaino block, part of the Pacific plate, ~1.5 km above the seafloor...