The Aves Ridge is a ridge in the eastern

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea ( es, Mar Caribe; french: Mer des Caraïbes; ht, Lanmè Karayib; jam, Kiaribiyan Sii; nl, Caraïbische Zee; pap, Laman Karibe) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico ...

. It runs in a north-south direction, approximately 250 km west of the

Lesser Antilles Volcanic Arc The Lesser Antilles Volcanic Arc is a volcanic arc that forms the eastern boundary of the Caribbean Plate. It is part of a subduction zone, also known as the Lesser Antilles subduction zone, where the oceanic crust of the North American Plate is ...

. It is mostly under water, but it reaches the surface in the north as Aves Island and in the south as

La Blanquilla Island Blanquilla is an island, one of the Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, located in the southeastern Caribbean Sea about 293 km (182 miles) northeast of Caracas. It is a popular location for divers, as well ...

. Most geologists believe that the Aves Ridge originated as a

volcanic arc A volcanic arc (also known as a magmatic arc) is a belt of volcanoes formed above a subducting oceanic tectonic plate, with the belt arranged in an arc shape as seen from above. Volcanic arcs typically parallel an oceanic trench, with the arc lo ...

which is now extinct, though its width poses a problem; the date of its origin is generally placed in the

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...

References

Underwater ridges of the Atlantic Ocean Landforms of the Caribbean Sea Cretaceous volcanoes Extinct volcanoes {{marine-geo-stub