Map of the Virgins Islands | |
 | |
| Geography | |
|---|---|
| Location | Caribbean Sea, Atlantic Ocean |
| Coordinates | 18°12′N 64°48′W / 18.2°N 64.8°W |
| Archipelago | Leeward Islands |
| Insular area | United States Virgin Islands |
| Insular area | Puerto Rico |
| Overseas territory | British Virgin Islands |
| Demographics | |
| Population | 150.000 (estimation) (2022) |
| Languages | English Virgin Islands Creole Spanish |
| Ethnic groups | Afro-Caribbean White-Caribbean Hispanic-Caribbean Asian-Caribbean Indo-Caribbean |
The Virgin Islands (Spanish: Islas Vírgenes) are an archipelago between the North Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea, geographically forming part of the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean islands or West Indies. Geologically separated from the Lesser Antilles by the Anegada Passage, all of the islands except for Saint Croix lie on the same carbonate platform as the main island of Puerto Rico, which is itself separated from rest of the Greater Antilles by the Mona Passage and Cayon.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] Politically, the islands fall into three jurisdictions: the easternmost British overseas territory of the Virgin Islands, informally referred to as the British Virgin Islands, the central unincorporated American territory of the Virgin Islands of the United States, commonly known as the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the westernmost island-municipalities of the unincorporated American territory of Puerto Rico, officially named Vieques and Culebra but generally called the Spanish Virgin Islands or Puerto Rican Virgin Islands.
The archipelagos of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands except for Saint Croix also lie on the same small tectonic plate, the Puerto Rico-Virgin Islands Microplate.
- ^ "Marine Regions · Puerto Rico Trench (Trench)". www.marineregions.org. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
- ^ "Demersal fish assemblages on seamounts and other rugged features in the northeastern Caribbean". Woods Hole Open Access Server. Retrieved 24 September 2024.
- ^ "New Seafloor Map of the Puerto Rico Trench Helps Assess Earthquake and Tsunami Hazards". ResearchGate. Retrieved 24 September 2024.
- ^ "The polyphased tectonic evolution of the Anegada Passage in the northern Lesser Antilles subduction zone". ResearchGate. Retrieved 24 September 2024.
- ^ "The Bunce Fault and Strain Partitioning in the Northern Lesser Antilles". AGU Advancing Earth and Space Sciences. Retrieved 24 September 2024.
- ^ US Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "Exploring Puerto Rico's Seamounts, Trenches, and Troughs: Background: Mission Plan: NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research". oceanexplorer.noaa.gov. Retrieved 2024-08-27.
- ^ "Core Data From Offshore Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands | U.S. Geological Survey". www.usgs.gov. Retrieved 2024-08-27.
- ^ "New species and new records of Cumacea (Crustacea: Peracarida: Cumacea) from mesophotic reefs of Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands, Caribbean Sea". Research Gate. Retrieved 24 August 2024.
- ^ "Por el camino verde: Long-term tropical socioecosystem dynamics and the Anthropocene as seen from Puerto Rico". Research Gate. Retrieved 24 August 2024.