Shallow subduction of the Cocos Ridge beneath the Costa Rican island arc results in six major tectonic effects. These effects include a volcanic gap in the Costa Rican volcanic arc chain, a shallowing of the dip of the subducted Cocos plate beneath Costa Rica, forearc indentation of the Pacific margin of Costa Rica, structural inversion of forearc (Terraba) and backarc (Limon) basins, arching of on- and offshore acoustic basement in a direction parallel to plate convergence between Costa Rica and the Cocos plate, and a radial stress pattern around the underthrust area of the Cocos Ridge as inferred from earthquake and geologic indicators.

Structures formed in forearc basin sedimentary and volcanic rocks of the Térraba belt above the subducted Cocos Ridge include major reverse faults that consistently place older lithologic units over younger lithologic units. One of these faults, the Ballena-Celmira fault zone, forms a prominent linear contact between Quaternary alluvium of the Pacific coastal plain and the Térraba belt. Bedding plane and fault data in the Térraba belt constrain a maximum shortening direction of N30-34°E for the central and eastern Térraba belt. This direction of maximum shortening corresponds closely to the N35°E direction of maximum shortening of Corrigan et al. (1990) from Plio-Pleistocene rocks of the outer forearc in the Burica/Osa area to the south and southeast of the Térraba belt. Assuming that the predicted plate convergence direction (N32°E) and the direction of maximum shortening in the forearc subparallel, thrusting and tilting in the forearc of westernmost Panama and eastern and central Costa Rica is interpreted as the result of regional northeast-southwest-oriented maximum compressive stresses exerted by post-Miocene shallow subduction of the Cocos Ridge.