The geological origin
 

15,000,000,000 years ago –15 thousand million years- was the great universal esplotion. It was then when the history of our planet began. After that came the seperation of the skys and the earths. The name of this first big territory was Pangea. 4,500,000,000 years ago, in the precambrian periode, the gigantic tectonical plates, the subcontinents of north and south America, could be seen. In the paleozoic era the geological forms of the geographical reliefs started to be formed. In the jurassica and cretaceous periodes the southern and eastern part of Mexico were formed, as well as the Central American subcontinent, adopting in the pilocenic epoque more or less its actual form.   

The tectonical or lithosphere plates are parts of the earth-crust with a thickness from 6 to 40 kms. These plates drift on the earth mantle. The drift appears seperating the tectonical plates in some cases, moving them sideways or colliding two or three tectonical plates in other cases. 

The major part of the surface of the latin area of the American continent rests on five lithosphere plates named North America, Caribbean, South America, Cocos and Nazca.

On the so-called North America plate there is located a smaller segment with its own geological charakteristics, which is namded “Maya Block”. In this block there is situated the area from east of the istmus os Tehunatepec, which contains the major part of the Chiapanecan territory in the north of the valley of the Grijalva River, the whole Yucatan peninsula and the part of Guatemala north of the course of the Motagua River, to the territory of Belize.

Towards the south of the Caribbean tectonical plate, the “Chortis Block” is located, where the territories of Chipas south of the Sierra Madre and the Guatemalan part south of the Motagua River course rest and which extents itself through the Central American countries up to the plain of the lake of Nicaragua.

These two blocks, the Maya and the Chortis, slowly move towards the north east, pushed by the tremendous pressures exerting through the Mesoamerican trench, along the Pacific Coast, the so-called tectonical plate Cocos, which causes the permanent, telluric movements, which are felt in the region and the movement of which can be noted in the suture zones through the so-called line of geological faults.

Between these faults we locate in Mesoamerica the fault of Motagua in Guatemala, which continues on the Chiapanecan territory as the fault of San Cristóbal and Malpaso, as well as the fault of Jocotan in Guatemala, known on the Chiapanecan part as the fault of Belizario Dominguez. The faults cross the continent from the Pacific on the height of the Dead sea on the border of Oaxaca and Chiapas to the Caribbean in the area of the Izabal lake between Guatemala and Honduras.

The effects of the San Cristobal fault is visible on 16 kms on the road from San Cristóbal de Las Casas to Ocosingo and the road to Tenejapa and Pantelho. The Belizario Dominguez fault is visible passing the road from Huixtla to Motozintla, about 25 km north of the Tacana volcano. There it has a horizontal movement of about 7 cms per year, visible on the earth surface. This is caused by the pressure of the Cocos plate under the Caribbean plate –Chortis block-, which at the same time slides towards one side of the North American plate –Maya block-.

In the Maya block, in the Sierra Madre of Chiapas one can find rocks from the paleozoicum. Generally it is considered that this mountain massif has been formed in the paleozoicum and some parts in the precambrian, beeing affirmed that the intrusive rocks are a result of different igneous tectonical events.

The only active volcano in the Maya block is the Chichonal.  Near San Cristóbal de las Casas exist various inactive cones. Together, these tectonical peaks hav a wester-northwestern orientation, almost parallel to axis of the Mesoamerican trench, about 350 kms from the Chichonal.

In the Chortis block, the Central American volcano chain is located, starting in Chiapas with three extinct volcanos: Boqueron, Chicharras and Chimborazo, and one active one: Tacana. Continuing along the Pacific Coast of Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua with nearly 100 volcanos, the majority of which is still active.

An important aspect of the suture zones is the enormous pressure, which is caused by the crash or rubbing of the tectonical plates. This is the origin of the telluric movements.

Cuadro del tiempo

Big universal explotion
15,000,000,000

Firtst living organisms (Precambrium)4,500,000,000

Origin of the jade minerals, amphibians and bone fishes (Devon)       
400,000,000

Union of the maya and the chorti block, first prosimios (Paleoceno) 70,000.000

Origin of the amber, firstanthropoids (Mioceno)30,000,000

Origin of the Homo Erectus (Holoceno)
1,600,000

First human evidences
50,000
 

Discovery of the agriculture in Minor Asia 
10,000

Discovery of the agrigulture in Tehuacan, Mexico 5,000

Discovery of the ceramics by the Mocayas in Chiapas 3,800

Height of the Olmec culture in the Gulf region 2,500

Height of the Maya culture in Chiapas and Guatemala 1,500