The area south of Jamaica forms its own plate, indeed named the Caribbean plate. Along this border lies a fragment that has split off from the Caribbean plate, known as the Panama (micro)plate. The northern boundary of the Caribbean plate is just as complex, and even more so when including the Caribbean Sea further north. The fault is known under many different names, including the Walton Fault zone and the Swan Islands Fault Zone (same fault, different place) to the west of Jamaica and as the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden Fault Zone at Haiti. The Gulf of Mexico isn’t a separate plate, nor is the northern Caribbean Sea, so why is the Caribbean plate here?