page_title: West Indies
section_title: Geology
hierarchical_section_title: West Indies / Geology
caption_attribution_description: English: Perspective view of the sea floor of the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, looking west. The Lesser Antilles are on the lower left side of the view and Florida is on the upper right. The purple sea floor at the center of the view is the Puerto Rico trench, the deepest part of the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. Deutsch: Perspektivische Sicht des Meeresbodens von Atlantik und Karibik. Die Kleinen Antillen sind unten links zu sehen und Florida oben rechts. Der violett gefärbte Meeresboden in Bildmitte ist der Puerto-Rico-Graben, die tiefste Stelle des Atlantik und der Karibik. Français&#160;: Vue en perspective du plancher océanique de l'océan Atlantique et de la mer des Caraïbes. Les Petites Antilles sont sur le côté inférieur gauche de l'image et la Floride est sur le coin supérieur droit. Le fond de la mer (couleur violette foncée) au centre de la vue est la Fosse de Porto Rico, au plus profond de l'océan Atlantique et la mer des Caraïbes
context_page_description: The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater Antilles, the Lesser Antilles, and the Lucayan Archipelago.
  The subregion includes all the islands in the Antilles, plus The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands, which are in the North Atlantic Ocean. Nowadays, the term West Indies is often interchangeable with the term Caribbean, although the latter may also include some North and South American mainland countries which have Caribbean coastlines.
context_section_description: The West Indies is a geologically complex island system consisting of 7,000 islands and islets stretching over 3,000 km from the Florida peninsula of North America south-southeast to the northern coast of Venezuela. These islands include active volcanoes, low-lying atolls, raised limestone islands, and large fragments of continental crust containing tall mountains and insular rivers. Each of the three archipelagos of the West Indies has a unique origin and geologic composition.
caption: The subduction of the South American Plate and part of the North American Plate beneath the Caribbean Plate produces both the Puerto Rico Trench, the deepest part of the Atlantic Ocean, as well as the active volcanoes of the Lesser Antilles (bottom left of the image, south of the Virgin Islands)
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