Tortuguilla Island (Isla Tortuguilla) is a small
island
An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...
in the
Caribbean Sea
The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...
off the northern coast of
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...
.
It is located about 9 km from the mainland, at coordinates 09 ° 01'50 "N 76 ° 20'40" O. Administratively it belongs to the
Córdoba department
Córdoba (, ) is a Department of the Republic of Colombia located to the north of this country in the Colombian Caribbean Region. Córdoba faces to the north with the Caribbean Sea, to the northeast with the Sucre Department, east with the Bol ...
, in the municipality of
Puerto Escondido.
Geography
Tortuguilla is a landmass subfossil coral terrace surrounded by a limestone platform about 10 feet deep that is home to numerous
coral reef
A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in group ...
s.
See also
*
Caribbean region of Colombia
*
Insular region of Colombia
*
List of islands of South America
References
External links
Isla Tortuguilla La Tierra.
Caribbean islands of Colombia
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