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Virgin Islands
The Virgin Islands () are an archipelago between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and northeastern Caribbean Sea, geographically forming part of the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean, Caribbean islands or West Indies. Geology, Geologically separated from the Lesser Antilles by the Anegada Passage and from the Greater Antilles by the Mona Passage, Mona passage, all the islands except for Saint Croix lie on the same carbonate platform and Continental shelf, insular shelf, known as the Puerto Rico Bank, and same List of tectonic plates#Microplates, tectonic plate, known as the Puerto Rico–Virgin Islands microplate. Politically, the islands fall into three jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions: the easternmost British Overseas Territories, British overseas territory of the British Virgin Islands, Virgin Islands, informally referred to as the ''British Virgin Islands'', the central Territories of the United States, unincorporated American territory of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States Virgin Islands
The United States Virgin Islands, officially the Virgin Islands of the United States, are a group of Caribbean islands and a territory of the United States. The islands are geographically part of the Virgin Islands archipelago and are located in the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles. The islands have a tropical climate. The U.S. Virgin Islands consist of the main islands of Saint Croix, Saint John, and Saint Thomas and 50 other surrounding minor islands and cays. The total land area of the territory is . The territory's capital is Charlotte Amalie on the island of St. Thomas. Previously known as the Danish West Indies of the Kingdom of Denmark–Norway (from 1754 to 1814) and the independent Kingdom of Denmark (from 1814 to 1917), they were sold to the United States by Denmark for $25,000,000 in the 1917 Treaty of the Danish West Indies in which the United States also recognized Denmark's control over Greenland, and have since been an organized, unincorporated ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Virgin Islands
The British Virgin Islands (BVI), officially the Virgin Islands, are a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean, to the east of Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands, US Virgin Islands and north-west of Anguilla. The islands are geographically part of the Virgin Islands, Virgin Islands archipelago and are located in the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles and part of the West Indies. The British Virgin Islands consist of the main islands of Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Anegada and Jost Van Dyke, along with more than 50 other smaller islands and cays. About 16 of the islands are inhabited. The capital, Road Town, is on Tortola, the largest island, which is about long and wide. The islands had a population of 28,054 at the 2010 Census, of whom 23,491 lived on Tortola; current estimates put the population at 35,802 (July 2018). The economy of the territory is overwhelmingly dominated by tourism and financial services. In terms of financi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Satellite Imagery
Satellite images (also Earth observation imagery, spaceborne photography, or simply satellite photo) are images of Earth collected by imaging satellites operated by governments and businesses around the world. Satellite imaging companies sell images by licensing them to governments and businesses such as Apple Maps and Google Maps. History The first images from space were taken on sub-orbital flights. The US-launched V-2 flight on October 24, 1946, took one image every 1.5 seconds. With an apogee of 65 miles (105 km), these photos were from five times higher than the previous record, the 13.7 miles (22 km) by the Explorer II balloon mission in 1935. The first satellite (orbital) photographs of Earth were made on August 14, 1959, by the U.S. Explorer 6. The first satellite photographs of the Moon might have been made on October 6, 1959, by the Soviet satellite Luna 3, on a mission to photograph the far side of the Moon. The Blue Marble photograph was taken from sp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for separating the New World of the Americas (North America and South America) from the Old World of Afro-Eurasia (Africa, Asia, and Europe). Through its separation of Afro-Eurasia from the Americas, the Atlantic Ocean has played a central role in the development of human society, globalization, and the histories of many nations. While the Norse colonization of North America, Norse were the first known humans to cross the Atlantic, it was the expedition of Christopher Columbus in 1492 that proved to be the most consequential. Columbus's expedition ushered in an Age of Discovery, age of exploration and colonization of the Americas by European powers, most notably Portuguese Empire, Portugal, Spanish Empire, Sp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Puerto Rico Bank
The Puerto Rico Bank (PRB) (Spanish: ''Banco de Puerto Rico''), also known as the Puerto Rican Bank (PRB), is a carbonate platform and insular shelf comprising the archipelagos of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, located between the Greater Antilles and the Lesser Antilles in the northeastern Caribbean. Last subaerially exposed from the Last Glacial Maximum in the Last Glacial Period of the Late Pleistocene Age to the Northgrippian Age of the Holocene Epoch, the bank connected Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands into a single landmass until sea level rise fragmented it into the present-day islands between 10,000 and 7,000 years Before Present (8,050 and 5,050 years Before Common Era). It is within the Puerto Rico–Virgin Islands microplate between the North American plate and Caribbean plate. Name Most commonly known as the ''Puerto Rico Bank'' and ''Puerto Rican Bank,'' the bank is named after the largest island within its limits, the eponymous main island of the arch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Continental Shelf
A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods. The shelf surrounding an island is known as an "''insular shelf''." The continental margin, between the continental shelf and the abyssal plain, comprises a steep continental slope, surrounded by the flatter continental rise, in which sediment from the continent above cascades down the slope and accumulates as a pile of sediment at the base of the slope. Extending as far as 500 km (310 mi) from the slope, it consists of thick sediments deposited by turbidity currents from the shelf and slope. The continental rise's gradient is intermediate between the gradients of the slope and the shelf. Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the name continental shelf was given a legal definition as the stretch of the seabed adjacent to the shores ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carbonate Platform
A carbonate platform is a Sedimentary rock, sedimentary body which possesses topographic relief, and is composed of Autochthon (geology), autochthonic calcareous deposits. Platform growth is mediated by Sessility (zoology), sessile organisms whose skeletons build up the coral reef, reef or by organisms (usually microbes) which induce carbonate precipitation through their metabolism. Therefore, carbonate platforms can not grow up everywhere: they are not present in places where limiting factors to the life of reef-building organisms exist. Such limiting factors are, among others: light, water temperature, Transparency (optics), transparency and pH-Value. For example, carbonate sedimentation along the Atlantic South American coasts takes place everywhere but at the mouth of the Amazon River, because of the intense turbidity of the water there. Spectacular examples of present-day carbonate platforms are the Bahama Banks under which the platform is roughly 8 km thick, the Yucatan P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saint Croix
Saint Croix ( ; ; ; ; Danish language, Danish and ; ) is an island in the Caribbean Sea, and a county and constituent Districts and sub-districts of the United States Virgin Islands, district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an Unincorporated territories of the United States, unincorporated territory of the United States. St. Croix is the largest of the territory's islands. As of the 2020 U.S. census, its population was 41,004. The island's highest point is Mount Eagle (U.S. Virgin Islands), Mount Eagle, at . St. Croix's nickname is "Twin City", for its two towns, Frederiksted on the western end and Christiansted on the northeast part of the island. Name The island's indigenous Taíno, Taino name is List of indigenous names of Eastern Caribbean islands#Leeward Islands, ''Ay Ay'' ("the river"). Its indigenous Kalinago, Carib name is ''Cibuquiera'' ("the stony land"). Its modern name, ''Saint Croix'', is derived from the French language, French ''Sainte-Croix'', itsel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mona Passage
The Mona Passage () is a strait that separates the islands of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. The Mona Passage connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean Sea and is an important shipping route between the Atlantic and the Panama Canal. The Mona Passage is long. It is fraught with variable tidal currents created by large islands on either side of it, and by sand banks that extend out from both coasts. Islands There are three small islands in the Mona Passage: * Mona Island lies close to the middle of the Mona Passage. * northwest of Mona Island is the much smaller Monito Island. * northeast of Mona Island and much closer () to the Puerto Rican mainland is Desecheo Island. Structure and seismicity The Passage was the site of a devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit western Puerto Rico in 1918.http://soundwaves.usgs.gov/2007/05/ Uri ten Brink, ''New Bathymetric Map of Mona Passage, Northeastern Caribbean, Aids in Earthquake- and Tsunami-Hazard Mitigation,'' USGS Sound Wave ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greater Antilles
The Greater Antilles is a grouping of the larger islands in the Caribbean Sea, including Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica, together with Navassa Island and the Cayman Islands. Seven island states share the region of the Greater Antilles, with Haiti and the Dominican Republic sharing the island of Hispaniola. Together with the Lesser Antilles, they make up the Antilles, which along with the Lucayan Archipelago, form the West Indies in the Caribbean region of the Americas. While most of the Greater Antilles consists of independent countries, Puerto Rico and Navassa Island are Territories of the United States, unincorporated territories of the United States, while the Cayman Islands are a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory. The largest island is Cuba, which extends to the western end of the island group. Puerto Rico lies on the eastern end, and the island of Hispaniola, the most populated island, is located in the middle. Jamaica lies to the south of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anegada Passage
The Anegada Passage , also known as the Anegada Trough, is a strait in the Caribbean that separates the British Virgin Islands and the British ruled Sombrero Island of Anguilla, and connects the Caribbean and the Atlantic Ocean. It is 2300 m deep. Because the threshold depths are 1800 and 1600 m, Atlantic deep water from 1600 m level may flow into the deep areas in the Caribbean Sea. The Anegada Passage is a key shipping lane for the Panama Canal. Often called the "Oh-my-god-a Passage", it is considered a difficult passage for sailors because of the winds, waves, and swells. The Anegada Passage was the site of the 1867 Virgin Islands earthquake and subsequent tsunami. Geographic extent The multiple fault lines, ridges, and basins, including the Virgin Islands Basin, Anegada Gap, and Sombrero Basin, that form part of the general trough stretching from the southeastern Puerto Rican mainland in the Caribbean Sea to the northeastern British Virgin Island of Anegada in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geology
Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth sciences, including hydrology. It is integrated with Earth system science and planetary science. Geology describes the structure of the Earth on and beneath its surface and the processes that have shaped that structure. Geologists study the mineralogical composition of rocks in order to get insight into their history of formation. Geology determines the relative ages of rocks found at a given location; geochemistry (a branch of geology) determines their absolute ages. By combining various petrological, crystallographic, and paleontological tools, geologists are able to chronicle the geological history of the Earth as a whole. One aspect is to demonstrate the age of the Earth. Geology provides evidence for plate tectonics, the ev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
