Montezuma is located in one of the most amazing geologic places on Earth!
The Middle America Trench runs along the Pacific coast along the Nicoya Peninsula, where an oceanic plate (section of Earth’s crust) is diving below the Caribbean plate that Montezuma sits on! At Montezuma, you can see the remains of an ancient set of islands formed by the Galapagos hotspot that was stuck to the edge of the Caribbean plate through the slow-moving action of tectonics.
The beautifully colored rocks seen at Montezuma’s beaches record the evolution of this ancient island arc that is made up of intriguing pillow basalts, rock patterned by hot steam and gases, and even formations made up of thousands of shells from small ancient sea-creatures.
