Explore similarities and differences. Puerto Rico, officially Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Spanish Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, self-governing island commonwealth of the West Indies, associated with the United States. Approximately 25 percent of the island is above 305 meters (1,000 feet) altitude. If that's not enough, click over to our collection of world maps and flags. Kissing Game/Puerto Rico [Vinyl Single] 1 - Track 1; … The mountains are the easternmost extension of a tightly folded and faulted ridge that extends from the Central American mainland across the northern Caribbean to the Lesser Antilles. The presence of high mountains creates a very interesting rainfall pattern resulting in the creation of an orographic rain shadow on the Caribbean side of the central mountain ranges, and some rain shadow valleys in the interior sections of the mountains. This 11 200-hectare (28,000-acre) forest is a biosphere reserve site and attracts about three quarters of a million visitors per year. Its land cover is variable, with much of the center of the island consumed by high mountains (40 percent), surrounded by foothills (35 percent), and a narrow coastal plain (25 percent). Here are 10 facts about poverty in Puerto Rico. Mountains can be seen from anywhere on the island. Puerto Rico Facts. National Geographic’s latest travel stories about Puerto Rico Subscribe to National Geographic Traveller. Distribution of mean annual precipitation in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico, Geography. Puerto Ricans of African heritage makes up the second-largest ethnic group in Puerto Rico, accounting for 12.4% of the total population. Get exclusive access to content from our 1768 First Edition with your subscription. Some of the rivers periodically run underground in association with caves. Research Professor of History, University of Puerto Rico, 1969–80. Two small islands off the east coast, Vieques and Culebra, are administratively parts of Puerto Rico, as is Mona Island to the west. Cerro de Punta is just north of Ponce within the Toro Negro Commonwealth Forest and can be accessed by Route 143 (Luis Muñoz Marín Panoramic Highway). Puerto Rico has four main regions. Puerto Rico’s southern region, which includes the Caribbean coast and its second-largest city, Ponce, is hot but drier than the northern part of the island. What is the world’s largest archipelago? By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. Sort out the facts about islands across the globe. Puerto rico 1. The soils of the coastal plain are conducive to agriculture, and much of it was cleared in the 17th and 18th centuries for sugarcane. Puerto Rico’s precipitation mainly falls on the north-facing mountain slopes, so that most of the permanent rivers flow from the interior to the north and west coasts, including the Grande de Loíza, Grande de Arecibo, and Grande de Añasco rivers—all of which are some 40 miles (65 km) long—and La Plata, which extends 46 miles (75 km). Compared with its Greater Antillean neighbours, Puerto Rico is one-fifth as large as the Dominican Republic, one-third the size of Haiti, and slightly smaller than Jamaica. Mixed race is the third-largest group, with over 122,000 people identifying themselves as of at least two races. It is 1665 kilometers (1,000 miles) southeast of Miami and 2840 kilometers (1,700 miles) south of New York City. The rivers that run north from the Cordillera Central in the karst area produce deep cuts in the landscape owing to differential rates of erosion in the limestone. Wikipedia (CC-BY-SA 3.0) Plant life is abundant and varied. The main island of Puerto Rico is the smallest and most eastern of the Greater Antilles. Virtually all of the coastal plain is in intensive agriculture, roads, or under urbanization. Northeast trade winds bring heavy rainfall to the north coast, while the south coast is in a rain shadow. script.setAttribute("src", "//www.npttech.com/advertising.js");
Britain's American colonies broke with the mother country in 1776 and were recognized as the new nation of the United States of America following the Treaty of Paris in 1783. They are called the Lesser Antilles and include the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, French Guadeloupe, Martinique, and numerous other islands down to Grenada, Barbados, and Trinidad. This range also has a series of peaks in excess of 915 meters (3,000 feet), and these peaks experience the highest amounts of rainfall on the island.
Geography :: Puerto Rico. The rougher, cooler Atlantic Ocean is on the north side of the island; the calmer, warmer Caribbean Sea is on the south side. Puerto Rico. It sits at the edge of the Caribbean tectonic plate, where that plate is colliding with the North American plate. The island’s social and economic conditions are generally advanced by Latin American standards, partly because of its ties with the United States (including the presence of U.S.-owned manufacturing plants and military bases in the commonwealth). Distribution of mean annual precipitation in Puerto Rico (Public domain.) script.setAttribute("async", true);
The highest altitude on the island is 1338 meters (4,389 feet) in the Cordillera Central range at Cerro de Punta, and there are numerous peaks over 915 meters (3,000 feet). Geography. Puerto Rico is an archipelago among the Greater Antilles located between the Dominican Republic and the U.S. Virgin Islands; it includes the eponymous main island and several smaller islands, such as Mona, Culebra, and Vieques.The capital and most populous city is San Juan. What Puerto Rico can teach us about surviving climate change. Although that relationship has become politically controversial, the vast majority of Puerto Rican voters have continued to favour permanent union with the United States, with a slightly greater number favouring the current commonwealth relationship rather than statehood. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). The entire center of the island is a continuous series of mountains that basically cuts the island in half as they run east to west from Humacao to Mayagüez. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Puerto Rico is the 163rd largest country in the world. San Juan receives about 60 inches (1,525 mm) of precipitation per year, whereas El Yunque Peak farther east receives 180 inches (4,570 mm), and Ponce on the south coast receives only 36 inches (914 mm). The island of Puerto Rico has surprising geographical diversity with some 60% of the island's terrain being very hilly. The easternmost island of the Greater Antilles chain, it lies approximately 50 miles (80 km) east of the Dominican Republic, 40 miles (65 km) west of the Virgin Islands, and 1,000 miles (1,600 km) southeast of the U.S. state of Florida. var setNptTechAdblockerCookie = function(adblocker) {
Some commercial gypsum, dolomite, and phosphate have been mined. document.cookie = "__adblocker=; expires=Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 GMT; path=/";
Six months after Hurricane Maria, Puerto Ricans are still recovering. Puerto Rico is the easternmost point of the Greater Antilles with an area covering 3,435 square miles. La Puerta de la Bandera, Old San Juan A wooden door painted in the omni-present flag of Puerto Rico has become both a landmark and symbol of the impenetrable Boricua pride.
Main article: Geography of Puerto Rico See also: Geology of Puerto Rico and Fauna of Puerto Rico. Keep watching and subscribe, as more states will follow! The average daily temperature in the lowlands is about 78 °F (26 °C), but relatively high humidity makes daytime temperatures feel warmer. It’s game over for the Arecibo Observatory, home to an iconic, thousand-foot-wide radio telescope near Puerto Rico’s northern shore.Yesterday, the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced that it is decommissioning the massive 57-year-old telescope.The agency also intends to demolish the instrument, which is teetering on the verge of collapse. Adjuntas is a mountainside municipality that's nicknamed "the Switzerland of Puerto Rico." It is an island surrounded by the Altlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. What are the islands of the Maldives made of? Puerto Ricans, or puertorriqueños, have an intermingled Spanish, U.S., and Afro-Caribbean culture.
The municipality of Gurabo has a history that dates back to the 17th century when it was part of Caguas. Many formerly cultivated and eroded areas in the mountains have been set aside as forest preserves. Former Secretary-General, Association of Caribbean Universities and Research Institutes, San Juan, Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico, Discover a Magnificent and Unique Island. Vieques lies about 7 miles (11.3 km) east of the main island and is approximately … Location: This entry identifies the country's regional location, neighboring countries, and adjacent bodies of water. Near the island’s eastern tip, the partly isolated Sierra de Luquillo rises to 3,494 feet (1,065 metres) at El Yunque Peak. The Luquillo range includes the El Yunque National Forest, also designated as the Luquillo Experimental Forest and known as the world-famous Luquillo Rain Forest or El Yunque. The geography of Puerto Rico consists of an archipelago located between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, east of the Dominican Republic, west of the Virgin Islands and north of Venezuela. There is a continuous but narrow lowland along the north coast, where most people live, and smaller bands along the south and west coasts that also include densely populated areas. Adjacent to the coast, the land is fairly level and has been converted to agriculture, urban development, and transportation corridors. Size Comparison: slightly less than three times the size of Rhode Island. The island is mostly mountainous with large coastal areas in the north and south. Today, extensive areas of aggregate and road gravel are being consumed. 
The Cordillera Central has a break in the area of Caguas, and the mountain range located northeast is the Sierra de Luquillo. Adjuntas is a mountainside municipality that's nicknamed "the Switzerland of Puerto Rico." By 2002 some 41.6 percent of the island was covered by closed forest, 36.7 percent is in pasture and grassland, 5.9 percent is in agriculture, 2.4 percent is in coffee plantations, 10.5 percent is urban/developed, and 3.9 percent is in various other categories including mines, rock/sand areas, salt and mudflats, emergent wetlands, and water bodies. Puerto Rico, called Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico in Spanish, is not a country on its own. The municipality of Gurabo has a history that dates back to the 17th century when it was part of Caguas. The river courses on the south coast are dry most of the year, carrying water only after rainfall. There are thousands of caves and sinkholes in the region.
Puerto Rico has a tropical climate with little seasonal variation, although local conditions vary according to elevation and exposure to rain-bearing winds. It is situated to the east of the Hispaniola Islands (shared by Haiti & the Dominican Republic); to the west of the US Virgin Islands and to the southeast of Florida. The territory's total population is approximately 3.2 million, more than 20 U.S. states. Puerto Rico is the 163rd largest country in the world. It is situated in the northeastern Caribbean Sea, its northern shore facing the Atlantic Ocean. Of these last five, only Culebra and Vieques are inhabited year-round. The three distinct physiographic regions are divided into the karst areas, the coastal lowlands and the mountainous region. Page last modified:
The capital is San Juan. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Puerto Rico Geography 2020 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page. Geography Puerto Rico is an island east of the Dominican Republic and west of the British Virgin Islands. "true" : "false") + "; expires=" + d.toUTCString() + "; path=/";
Geography of Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico is the easternmost island of the Greater Antilles in the Caribbean Sea, approximately a thousand miles southeast of Florida and just east of the Dominican Republic and west of the U.S. Virgin Islands. Puerto Rico is largely composed of mountainous and hilly terrain, with nearly one-fourth of the island covered by steep slopes. Puerto Rico, officially known as the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico), is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the U.S. Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.
the coastal valleys which are humid and used to grow suger cane coconuts and fruit. Puerto Rico: NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC Adventure Maps | National Geographic Maps | ISBN: 9781566955188 | Kostenloser Versand für alle Bücher mit Versand und Verkauf duch Amazon. The northwestern foothills and lowlands are characterized by karst features, including sinkholes (sumideros), caverns, and eroded mogotes, or haystack hills (pepinos). Tropical rainforests cover parts of the north side of the island, and thorn and scrub vegetation predominates on the drier south side. Thoughtco Mar 26, 2020. Puerto Rico is situated in north east of Caribbean Sea, between the Dominican Republic and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Puerto Rico has both Spanish and English for its official languages. Total Size: 13,790 square km. Puerto Rico: Municipalities - Map Quiz Game: Puerto Rico is divided into 78 municipalities, and this quiz game will help you memorize them all. Puerto Rico has a long history of earthquakes, although large events are rare. Although some woodlands have been replanted since the mid-20th century, introduced varieties of trees, shrubs, and grasses now predominate.