Isla Tortuga (Tortuga Island) is an island in the

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

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

East Pacific Rise The East Pacific Rise is a mid-ocean rise (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), a divergent tectonic plate boundary located alon ...

. It lies east-northeast of the city of Santa Rosalía, in

Mulegé Municipality Mulegé is a city in Mulegé Municipality, Baja California Sur, situated on the Gulf of California. Located on the Gulf of California, the population was 3,821 according to the Mexican census of 2010. History Indigenous peoples had lived in ...

. 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 In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found 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 found else ...

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 volcano eruption. When large volumes of magma are erupted over a short time, structural support for the rock above the magma chamber is ...

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