Greater Antilles

The Greater Antilles are a group of islands in the Caribbean.

Geography

Along with the Lesser Antilles, the Turks and Caicos Islands and the Bahamas, Greater Antilles form the West Indies.

The adjective "large" refers to the four large main islands (Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola and Puerto Rico), the archipelago but includes a number of smaller islands and island groups. Together, the four main islands of about 90 % of the area of the Caribbean islands.

Geologically they are built the Central American mainland similar, from slates, gneisses and igneous rocks and old with young mussel and Korallenkalken in the north.

Name

The name " Antilles " for these islands is occupied for the first time in the Spanish humanist Peter Martyr of Anghiera in 1493 writing. It is derived from the name of the legendary island " Antilia " from which it was thought during the Middle Ages in the Atlantic, or from the Latin term " ante ilium " for offshore islands because the islands of Central America are upstream.

Islands and island groups

The islands off the east coast of Puerto Rico are locally referred to as "Spanish Virgin Islands ". Therefore, I prefer it with the Virgin Islands geographically assign the Lesser Antilles.