Isla Tortuga (Tortuga Island) is an island in the

Gulf of California The Gulf of California (), also known as the Sea of Cortés (''Mar de Cortés'') or Sea of Cortez, or less commonly as the Vermilion Sea (''Mar Vermejo''), is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja California peninsula from ...

, created relatively recently in geologic terms by the volcanism associated with the

East Pacific Rise The East Pacific Rise (EPR) is a mid-ocean rise (usually termed an oceanic rise and not a mid-ocean ridge due to its higher rate of spreading that results in less elevation increase and more regular terrain), at a divergent tectonic plate bound ...

. It lies east-northeast of the city of Santa Rosalía, in Mulegé Municipality. It has a surface area of 11.374 km² (4.39 sq mi).INEGI: ''Superficie continental e insular del territorio nacional''
(in Spanish).

Biology

The Tortuga Island rattlesnake (''Crotalus tortugensis'') is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to Isla Tortuga — it is found nowhere else. It is very abundant on the island and found everywhere on the island, except in the

caldera A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcanic eruption. An eruption that ejects large volumes of magma over a short period of time can cause significant detriment to the str ...

of the volcano.

References

External links

Volcanic Ridges off Santa Rosalia, Baja California Sur, Gulf of California
Islands of Baja California Sur Islands of the Gulf of California Volcanism of Mexico Nature reserves in Mexico Protected areas of Baja California Sur Uninhabited islands of Mexico {{BajaCaliforniaSur-geo-stub