Mexico is highly earthquake- and volcano-prone because the Cocos and Rivera plates subduct beneath the North American Plate along the Middle America Trench off the Pacific coast. This subduction fuels the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, an east-west chain of volcanoes across the centre of the country, and generates powerful earthquakes that regularly strike the southern and central states.
Mexico's volcanoes include the frequently erupting Popocatépetl near Mexico City and Paricutín, which famously grew from a cornfield in 1943. The 1985 Mexico City earthquake, magnitude 8.0, killed thousands and reshaped the nation's building codes, and by tragic coincidence another major earthquake struck on its anniversary in September 2017, again causing severe damage in the capital.