Spanish Virgin Islands

Spanish Virgin Islands
Puerto Rican Virgin Islands

Islas Vírgenes Españolas Islas Vírgenes de Puertorriqueñas
Satellite image, May 2003
Spanish Virgin Islands Puerto Rican Virgin Islands Show map of Puerto Rico Spanish Virgin Islands Puerto Rican Virgin Islands Show map of Lesser Antilles Spanish Virgin Islands Puerto Rican Virgin Islands Show map of Caribbean
Geography
Coordinates	18°13′36.27″N 65°20′18.38″W / 18.2267417°N 65.3384389°W / 18.2267417; -65.3384389
Archipelago	Virgin Islands
Adjacent to	Caribbean Sea
Area	165.1 km2 (63.7 sq mi)
Administration
United States  Puerto Rico
Municipality	Culebra and Vieques
Largest settlement	Isabel II barrio-pueblo (pop. 1,459)
Demographics
Population	11,119
Pop. density	67.35/km2 (174.44/sq mi)

The Spanish Virgin Islands (Spanish: Islas Vírgenes Españolas),^[1][2] formerly called the Passage Islands (Spanish: Islas del Pasaje), commonly known as the Puerto Rican Virgin Islands (Spanish: Islas Vírgenes Puertorriqueñas), consist of the islands of Vieques and Culebra, located between the main island of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands in the northeastern Caribbean.^[3] Located between the Greater and Lesser Antilles, the islands are administratively part of the archipelago of Puerto Rico, and geographically part of the archipelago of the Virgin Islands of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles.

Geologically separated from the Greater Antilles island of Hispaniola by the Mona Passage and from the Lesser Antilles island arc by the Anegada Passage, the main island of Puerto Rico, the Spanish Virgin Islands of Vieques and Culebra, the British Virgin Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands except for the southernmost island of Saint Croix, all lie on the same carbonate platform and insular shelf, the Puerto Rico Bank, between the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. The archipelagos of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands except for Saint Croix also lie on the same tectonic plate, the Puerto Rico-Virgin Islands Microplate.