Back to Homepage Travel Destinations Traveler's Life Amsterdam 48 Hours Canada Travel Destination Athens London Calling New York New York

Redonda, A Solitary Remnant A solitary and uninhabited islet known as Redonda between Nevis and Montserrat, less than a mile in diameter and about 1000 feet in height, rises from an imperfectly charted bank, several miles across, with depths of 30, 40, or 50 fathoms. This little remnant appears to represent a penultimate stage in the first-cycle sequence of insular forms; that is it is the central islet of an almostatoll, the atoll reef having been cut away and the central islet having been modified by the waves of the lowered and chilled Glacial ocean. The scar of a landslide, about 700 feet high at the top, and a heap of fallen detritus are seen on the southeastern slope. Manganese ore is said to have been quarried here. Submarine Banks or Abraded Atolls Finally, the ultimate stage of the first cycle is exemplified by several small, rimless and islandfree banks, which appear to be true atolls modified, like the forms of earlier stages, by low-level abrasion. One, three miles across, lies some miles to the east of Redonda, with norths of from 43 to 86 fathoms; another, to the north of Redonda, is five miles long, with depths of 25 or 30 fathoms. A few others of similar size and depth are charted elsewhere in the chain. Evidently, if this schematic interpretation is correct, each one of these rimless banks began as a simple young volcanic island, like Saba, and then passed through the mature stage of elaborate subaerial sculpture and partial submergence, represented by the Saints, and the penultimate stage of approaching extinction, represented by Redonda, before reaching the ultimate stage of atoll development, with its episodes of low-level abrasion followed by imperfect reef growth and aggradation.

Caribbean Area The Virgin Islands The Bays of St. Thomas Norman Island and Island of Culebra The Cliffs of Virgin Islands The Great Banks Around the Virgin Islands The Limestone Island of Aregana Postglacial Coral Reefs on the Virgin Bank The Island of St. Croix Antigua and Barbuda Other Tilted Islands Geologoy of Antigua The Antigua Limestones Bays and Cliffs of Antigua Postglacial Features of Antigua and Its Bank St. Bartholomew, St. Martin, and Anguilla French Guiana Clipperton Island The Territory of Guracao Surinam Saba, Young Volcanic Island Redonda Marie Galante, Sombrero Montserrat Island Statia and St. Kitts, Nevis Adjustment of Bank Depths to Present Ocean Level  Economy The International Importance of the Banana Trade United States Trade with the Caribbean Oil on the Caribbean  Health Caribbean Diet Clothing and Housing Caribbean Exercise More