Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Kitts and Nevis (), officially the Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis, is an island country and microstate consisting of the two islands of Saint Kitts and Nevis, both located in the West Indies, in the Leeward Islands chain ...

is a twin

island country An island country, island state or an island nation is a country whose primary territory consists of one or more islands or parts of islands. Approximately 25% of all independent countries are island countries. Island countries are historically ...

with a total landmass of just . The island of St. Kitts, the larger of the two, is in size and is located at latitude 17.30 N, and longitude 62.80 W.

Nevis Nevis is a small island in the Caribbean Sea that forms part of the inner arc of the Leeward Islands chain of the West Indies. Nevis and the neighbouring island of Saint Kitts constitute one country: the Federation of Saint Kitts and ...

is and located at latitude 17.10 N, longitude 62.35 W, approximately 3 km south-east of St. Kitts. The islands are about one-third of the way from

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much smaller islands, it is situated south of ...

. The islands are volcanic and mountainous.

Geology

The island of St. Kitts is composed almost exclusively of

volcanic A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates a ...

rocks of

andesite Andesite () is a volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between silica-poor basalt and silica-rich rhyolite. It is fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic in texture, and is composed predo ...

dacite Dacite () is a volcanic rock formed by rapid solidification of lava that is high in silica and low in alkali metal oxides. It has a fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic texture and is intermediate in composition between andesite and rhyolite ...

mineralogy. Its

geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ea ...

is similar to that of other volcanic islands in the Lesser Antillean Archipelago. The islands are the summits of a submerged mountain range which forms the eastern boundary of what is known as the Caribbean Tectonic Plate. St. Kitts is oriented northwest–southeast, about 80 km long and 16 km wide. The entire island archipelago is geologically young, having begun to form probably less than 50 million years ago, during the Miocene era. Volcanic activity occurred along the ridges of this arc during the Miocene era and has continued since. Nevis is a volcanic island that began its formation in mid-

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...

, these prevent any single model of the island's geological evolution. The geology of Nevis can be subdivided into four informal units: Volcanic of the eruptive centers, volcanigenic rocks - pyroclastics and lahars, fluviatile and

lacustrine A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much larger ...

deposits, and

raised beach A raised beach, coastal terrace,Pinter, N (2010): 'Coastal Terraces, Sealevel, and Active Tectonics' (educational exercise), from 2/04/2011/ref> or perched coastline is a relatively flat, horizontal or gently inclined surface of marine origin,P ...

es.

Statistics

Map references:

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

and the Caribbean Area:
''total:'' 261 km² (Saint Kitts 168 km²; Nevis 93 km²)
''land:'' 261 km²
''water:'' 0 km² Area - comparative: two thirds the size of the island of

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate) ...

Coastline: 135 km Maritime claims:
''continental shelf:'' 200 nautical miles (370 km) or to the edge of the continental margin
''territorial sea:'' 12 nautical miles (22 km)
''contiguous zone:'' 24 nautical miles (44 km)
''exclusive economic zone:'' 200 nautical miles (370 km) Climate: tropical tempered by constant sea breezes; little seasonal temperature variation; rainy season (May to November) Extreme points: Northernmost point: Unnamed headland at

Dieppe Bay Town Dieppe Bay Town is a town in Saint John Capisterre Parish in the island of Saint Kitts, in the country of Saint Kitts and Nevis in the West Indies. Settled in 1538, it is the oldest town founded by Europeans in the whole of the Eastern Caribbean. ...

Saint Kitts Saint Kitts, officially the Saint Christopher Island, is an island in the West Indies. The west side of the island borders the Caribbean Sea, and the eastern coast faces the Atlantic Ocean. Saint Kitts and the neighbouring island of Nevis cons ...

Southernmost point: Devil's Cave, Saint John Figtree Parish,

Westernmost point: Western cape of

Saint Anne Sandy Point Parish Saint Anne Sandy Point is one of 14 administrative parishes that make up Saint Kitts and Nevis. It is the smallest parish on St. Kitts in terms of area, at just . It is located on the main island of Saint Kitts and the parish capital is Sandy Po ...

Easternmost point: Eastern cape of

Saint James Windward Parish Saint James Windward is the largest of five parishes on the island of Nevis. These five parishes are in turn part of the 14 administrative parishes making up the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis. Saint James Parish is located in the northeaste ...

lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m highest point: Mount Liamuiga 1,156 m Natural resources: arable land Land use:
''arable land:'' 19.44%
''permanent crops:'' 2.78%
''other:'' 77.78% (2005) Natural hazards: hurricanes (July to October) Environment - international agreements:
''party to:''

Biodiversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') l ...

Climate Change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

, Desertification, Endangered Species,

Hazardous Wastes Hazardous waste is waste that has substantial or potential threats to public health or the environment. Hazardous waste is a type of dangerous goods. They usually have one or more of the following hazardous traits: ignitability, reactivity, cor ...

, Law of the Sea,

Ozone Layer Protection The Montreal Protocol is an international treaty designed to protect the ozone layer by phasing out the production of numerous substances that are responsible for ozone depletion. It was agreed on 16 September 1987, and entered into force o ...

Ship Pollution The environmental effects of shipping include air pollution, water pollution, acoustic, and oil pollution. Ships are responsible for more than 18 percent of some air pollutants. As for greenhouse gas emissions, the International Maritime Orga ...

Whaling Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution. It was practiced as an organized industr ...

Climate

By the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

, St. Kitts has a

tropical savanna climate Tropical savanna climate or tropical wet and dry climate is a tropical climate sub-type that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification categories ''Aw'' (for a dry winter) and ''As'' (for a dry summer). The driest month has less than of p ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...

''Aw'') and Nevis has a

tropical monsoon climate An area of tropical monsoon climate (occasionally known as a sub-equatorial, tropical wet climate or a tropical monsoon and trade-wind littoral climate) is a tropical climate sub-type that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification category ...

(

''Am''). Mean monthly temperatures in Basseterre varies little from to . Yearly rainfall is approximately , although it has varied from to in the period 1901–2015.

Gallery

File:Downtown Basseterre, St. Kitts.jpg, Downtown Basseterre File:Downtown Basseterre, Island of St. Kitts.jpg, Downtown Basseterre File:Fishing boat, Basseterre harbor, St. Kitts.jpg, Fishing boat, Basseterre harbor File:Cyphoma gibbosum.jpg, Flamingo Tongue shell on a Sea Fan File:Divers and anemone on the MV River Taw wreck, St. Kitts.jpg, Divers and anemone on the MV River Taw wreck File:Juvenile French Angelfish near a sunken van, St. Kitts.jpg, Juvenile French Angelfish near a sunken van File:Diver and fish, MV River Taw wreck, St. Kitts.jpg, Diver and fish, MV River Taw wreck File:Diver and sponges, St. Kitts.jpg, Diver and sponges File:3757 aquaimages.jpg, Royal Gramma or Fairy Basslet

References

{{North America topic, Climate of

Geology

Statistics

Climate

Gallery

See also

References