Puerto Rico Bank
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Puerto Rico Bank and major surrounding geological features | |
  Puerto Rico Bank Location within the Caribbean | |
| Geography | |
| Location | Caribbean |
| Coordinates | 18°17′00″N 65°36′00″W / 18.28333°N 65.60000°W |
| Archipelago | Puerto Rico Virgin Islands |
| Area | 21.000 km2 (8.108 sq mi) |
| Administration | |
| Islands and Cays | 140[a] |
| Islands and Cays | 52[b][1] |
| Islands and Cays | 36[1] |
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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[a] and the Virgin Islands,[b] located between the Greater Antilles and the Lesser Antilles in the northeastern Caribbean.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] 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).[10][11][12][13][14][15] It is within the Puerto Rico–Virgin Islands microplate between the North American plate and Caribbean plate.
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 archipelago of Puerto Rico. The part of the bank covering the Virgin Islands is occasionally referred to as the Virgin Bank.[16][17][18]
Location
Separated from the Greater Antilles by the Mona Passage and from the Lesser Antilles by the Anegada passage in the northeastern Caribbean Sea of the Atlantic Ocean, the Puerto Rico Bank compromises the main island of Puerto Rico, the Spanish Virgins Islands of Vieques and Culebra, the U.S. Virgin Islands of Saint Thomas and Saint John, and the British Virgin Islands of Jost Van Dyke, Tortola, Virgin Gorda, and Anegada. It includes all surrounding minor islands and cays of each one of the aforementioned major islands. The westernmost islands of Desecho, Mona, and Monito of Puerto Rico, and the southernmost island of Saint Croix of the U.S. Virgin Islands do not form part of the bank, as they lie on their own platforms.[21][22]